《The face of ugly》 1: Not as expected Gaaaaaah Jacob cried as he fell arse over head out of the portal, it was two foot off the ground, but he had more important things to worry about. There was a tightness in his chest, almost a squeezing feeling. He started to panic. ¡°I can¡¯t breathe¡± ¡°They said the world would be different what if there is no air¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to die¡± ¡°No stop that¡± ¡°Deep slow breaths now¡± all these thoughts ran through Jacobs head as he lay there breathing deeply. As second after second went by his panic started to lessen. He was still alive he could breathe, the tightness and squeezing was still there. What had happened? Looking down he instantly realized the straps on his bag where ridiculously tight on him, not after Sunday dinner tight more like boa constrictor round the chest tight, no wonder he felt squeezed. He tried to undo the knots across his chest, to slip the bag off his shoulders but whatever had pulled the straps tight had also pulled the knots so tight he had no hope of untying them. Jacob could feel the panic starting to rise again, he stopped, took a couple of deep breaths, perhaps if he couldn¡¯t untie them the straps would break if he pulled them. They were so tight they must already be close to breaking. So thinking, he started trying to pull at the various straps of his bag. It was no good the straps where made of tough leather and pulled so tight into his body that he couldn¡¯t get a grip on them. In equal parts panic and irritation Jacob started flailing at the straps, not really having a plan in mind just wanting the damn straps off. Until suddenly they loosened, one strap was in pieces; Jacob immediately rolled the rest of the way out of the straps. Lying on the floor Jacob let out a cheer then started to laugh at the ridiculousness of it, celebrating taking a bag off. Getting himself back under control Jacob looked over at the bag, the strap was cut. How? Crawling closer he could see it was definitely cut the end of the strap where perfectly straight, defiantly not frayed, jagged or in any way torn. The only thing that had been anywhere near the straps was his hand. This caused him to take a proper look at his hands for the first time, except they were not his hands at least not the hands he remembered. These hands where a grey in colour, it was more than just colour. The shape was completely different, these hands where thick with long fingers there were no nails but the tip of each finger came to a point. Somewhere in the back of his mind Jacob realized it must have been one of these points that cut the strap. His eyes traveled up his arms they were defiantly not his arms the same grey colour as the hands and much thicker than the ones he remembered having. They were longer to, it seemed like he could probably reach his knees while standing straight. By now the panic was really setting in Jacob wanted to scream but he couldn¡¯t get any sound out; he was hyperventilating, curled in a ball on the ground. With a sudden thought, he jerked up, what about his face? Jacobs panic went into overdrive. His mind started to conjure up al l sorts of images of what he could look like, each more horrifying than the last. The not knowing was becoming worse than any horrendous image he was coming up with. Gently, carful of his new sharp fingers, Jacob started to feel his face and head. Starting at the top, he didn¡¯t seem to have any hair instead the top of his head seemed smooth and hard but with bumps and troughs running along it. Continuing down, his brow seemed thick with no eyebrows. From what he could tell with his fingers his eyes, at least the shape of them, seemed normal. His mouth and nose however seemed to come out from his face, it too was completely smooth but still seemed more animal in shape. This just was too much and not enough for Jacob he needed to see, in a stroke of surprisingly quick thinking for Jacobs panic addled mind he dived into his bag and pulled out the sauce pan, the new metal surface made a surprisingly good mirror, not perfect but enough for him to see his new self for the first time. What he had thought was the top of his head where a set of six dark grey horns side by side, starting out of his forehead and curving back over his head before flicking out into a point part way down the back of his head, there were also two more horns that came out from his temples then curving round his ears before coming forward along his jaw line but stopping well short of his mouth. The ears themselves where relatively normal, other than the grey which appeared to be his new skin colour. He had been mistaken about his eyes though, they were far from normal, they had retained a normal shape but the pupils had become vertical slits like a cat and the whites had become a rich orange, with an iris only slightly lighter colour so just about visible with his crude mirror. The mouth and nose was the biggest change, from Jacobs¡¯s point of view. They were stretched forward something more like a dogs muzzle with a bit of cat thrown in. Seeing all this seemed to shock Jacob back to his senses. He could remember them saying some peoples race would change, but this was nothing like the, handsome elves and rugged dwarves or menacing and powerful like the orcs, that had been shown to them all. Jacob didn¡¯t even know what this, creature, was; it matched none of the fantasy races he knew of. There had to be a way to find out, it seemed like important information to know if he was going to be starting a new life here, and Jacob was certain that is exactly what he was going to do. If this was his new skin then so be it, he would just have to live with it, not like he could change it anyway. The few moments it took for him to decide all this were all that were needed for him to calm down completely and final do what he realized he should have done earlier. Jacob opened his status sheet. Race: Gargoyle Name: _ _ _ Level: 1 Experience to next level: 0/100 Health: 126/126 Stamina: 109/109 Mana: 62/62 Constitution: 11 Endurance: 8 Strength: 12 Agility: 5This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Dexterity: 5 Willpower: 8 Wisdom: 6 Intelligence: 6 Charisma: 3 Perception: 7 Luck: 5 Abilities Racial: Personal Jacob was relived it had worked as he was told it would. There it was the answer to what he was. A gargoyle, that was his race. e HHe didn¡¯t know much about gargoyle¡¯s, from what he could remember they were the creepy statues on gothic buildings, and traditionally made as ugly and scary as possible to watch over building and ward of evil. He supposed that given that he should just be thankful his face wasn¡¯t worse than it was. The next line Name was blank looking ready to be filled in. Upon thinking this Jacob was confronted with a new box in front of his face. The box kindly stated, ¡°Please enter your name¡± With a blinking cursor underneath, ready for Jacob to fill in a name. Using his old name from the other world didn¡¯t even cross his mind he was starting new, in a new world; he would have a new name. But he didn¡¯t even know how to enter a name, let alone where to start with picking one. Not one to let little things, like not knowing how, stop him Jacob started thinking of new names. Speaking aloud to get some ideas out of his head he said ¡°Perhaps Gar as in short for Gargoyle.¡± No sooner had he said this then the box filled in with Gar. Again he spoke aloud ¡°Okay, so that¡¯s how that works¡±. Considering it, Gar was a bit of a stupid name but what sort of name would be considered stupid here, maybe Jacob would be considered ridiculous so with no better information and without the time or inclination to spend longer on it, he just thought accept. For now he would be called Gar. He figured he could always change it later In his head Gar returned to looking over the rest of his status sheet. All looked good and made sense. It seemed his stats where skewed more towards the physical than the mental but glancing at his body, that made some sense and if he was really honest he had always been a more hands on kind of guy than the think it through kind. He was a bit miffed about his low charisma score but he supposed a race that are by design ugly are bound to be stuck with low charisma. Perhaps if he could raise the stat he would get better looking, it was something he¡¯d think about. Now the ability¡¯s at the end they were something Gar found interesting. They could make him strong help him survive. Dark vision was great if this world had any similarities to earth it was probably that the really dangerous predators came out at night, so being able to see in the dark was great. Grotesque on the other hand that was going to require some thought, it sounded like it could attach monster parts to him, which probably would help him get stronger but he was already going to have issues fitting into a society as he was. If he starts adding monster bits he might just end up getting attacked on sight by scared villagers. So in his mind Gar put that ability to one side, he hoped he wouldn¡¯t need it for now. Now the last ability his personal ability was what really got Gar excited. Mana sight now that seemed useful, not only would it hopefully let him detect hidden enemy¡¯s, it would also hopefully help him learn magic because despite his strength and size, he had never been in a fight. Gar hoped that if he could learn some magic it would help keep him safer, besides it was a fantasy world, who wouldn¡¯t want magic? Going through his status page had helped Gar to calm down. Somewhat calmer and with a bit of a clearer picture of himself, Gar looked around for the first time. He was in a bit of woodlands, trees fairly spread out, it seemed oddly dark here even in the gaps between trees there wasn¡¯t much sunlight. Gar could just about hear the running of water off to one side. Now Gar didn¡¯t really know what to do next. Civilisation that was what he needed the only thing he knew about surviving in the wild was what he had learnt from watching survival shows. He didn¡¯t know which direction to go; he needed a better idea of his surroundings. So with that in mind Gar collected up his things dropped them at the base of a tree and started trying to climb. The tree was old and large, the bark felt rough under his hand. The slight lean to the tree and some old knots in the trunk let Gar climb up to the first couple of branches, only now about 3 meters of the floor with many more to go did the challenge of what he was trying to do hit home. With no better idea though and always up for a challenge Gar kept going, as he got higher up the branches got closer together making the climb marginally easier. Gar was getting tired though he could see his stamina bar had dropped, the little green line was no more than a third full. That¡¯s when it happened he slipped, his foot and weight now over nothing, nothing in his hands but the rough bark of the trunk, he tried to grab on, tried to stop himself and in his desperation as he felt himself tip forward over the void to the ground below. His fingers sank in the sharp tips had pierced the trunk and anchored him just before he fell. Reorienting himself and extracting his fingers from the tree, Gar stopped and sat on the branch, catching his breath letting his stamina refill. Whilst also letting his heart rate settle, he had thought he was gone then and he knew he would have been if not for his new body. A fall from that height could most defiantly be deadly even if he survived the initial fall, he most defiantly would of broken bones, and injured like that with no supplies or help that was certain death. Only then did Gar realise how precarious his situation was. Waiting a few more minutes until his stamina was full Gar stood and looked to the tree again he was about two thirds of the way up, he needed to go a bit further before he could see past the tree cover. Before he started climbing though he decided some experimenting was in order. Taking his right hand he looked at his fingers before pushing the tip of his index finger into the wood, it sank in relatively easily and came out just as easy, repeating this with the other fingers on that hand they all went in just the same. Pulling back his hand and looking at it again Gar saw no difference in it no marks or scratches, placing his hand back on the tree he sank all the digits on his hand in at once. The smile on Gar¡¯s face at this point was huge this was almost enough to make him forget his near death. Pulling his hand out he looked down at his feet, the shoes he had been wearing where gone ripped apart during his transformation no longer fitting his new feet. That wasn¡¯t important to Gar right now, although he did note the rough wood was causing no issues on his bare feet. What was important to Gar then was that his toes now also ended in similar points to his fingers. A bit more experimenting and Gar was ready to get back to climbing. Starting by sinking fingers from his left hand and toes from his right foot into the trunk pushing up before repeating with the other hand and foot. Like this he climbed making steady progress. He stopped and rested frequently on branches never letting his stamina fall below half. Gar climbed as high as he thought he could get away with before the trunk started to bend and sway too much and his nerve gave out. Finally looking away from the trunk of the tree Gar got his first real look at his surroundings. 2: The first obstacle He was in a small woodland, only several hundred meters across. He could see grassland off in one direction with a river running through it and a small lake of to one edge. None of that was what bothered Gar. What did was the huge walls, cliffs all around they must have been at least a kilometre high if not more. It explained the darkness in the forest, it was almost completely in the shadow cast by the cliff face. Gar was in a massive cenote; a sinkhole, kilometres across, a waterfall pouring over the side into the lake, flowing down the river before disappearing underground. This was not good Gar wasn¡¯t going to be able to get out of this easily and he couldn¡¯t see any signs of sentient life anywhere, no buildings, no smoke from fires nothing to indicate there was any help nearby. Gar climbed down a little found a branch that would take his weight and sat on it to rest and recover his stamina for the climb down. He took this time to decide what his next move should be, with where he was he wasn¡¯t going to be finding help any time soon, so his priority had to shift from finding a village to survival. Gar was no survival expert but had seen enough of those survival TV shows to know the main three things for survival where, water, food, and shelter, so that would be his goal for now once he had that established he would explore from there. So he wasn¡¯t too worried about water, that river and lake should solve that pretty quickly. Food and shelter on the other hand where going to take a bit more work, food would be seeing if he found any plants he recognised as edible. He wasn¡¯t sure he would recognise anything, at least not confidently enough to eat it, so that would mean meat. Perhaps there were some rabbits about he could catch, he had eaten rabbit once and it wasn¡¯t bad, or maybe there was fish in the river he could catch. Food decided for now he thought about shelter, finding somewhere that would work or building something those where the only options. he could probably build something but it would take time and he wanted somewhere before night fell. So that left finding somewhere it was a risk but one he thought he should take, with a bit of luck there would be a cave he could use in the walls of the cenote and it would give him a chance to start looking for a way out. Mind made up and stamina recovered He started making his way down again. At the bottom he gathered his stuff up into his bag, picked it up only to remember the straps where broken, pulling out a knife from the bag he quickly cut off the waist straps he had added and tied them on to extend and repair the shoulder straps. Hoisting the bag onto his back he set off towards the river he had seen, as where ever he set up base it was going to have to be near enough to his water source. It was quickly obvious to Gar that he was not going to be able to carry his bag for long; it was uncomfortable, it moved, and rubbed, most of all it was far too heavy. he had stuffed it with everything he thought he might need and some extra stuff as well having been told he could take as much as he could carry but now it was a detriment his stamina was depleting rapidly and he wasn¡¯t going fast. There was too much good and useful stuff in there for him to abandon it or throw it away, that stuff was all he had and he was going to need it to survive but he was not going to be able to properly explore taking it all with him. Through stubbornness and determination Gar carried it through the couple hundred meters out of the trees, and all but fell to the ground as he dropped the pack his stamina again all but bottomed out. He had to change up his plan because what he was doing wasn¡¯t going to work, that bag was far too heavy. Resting to get his breath and stamina back was long enough for Gar to realise his only option. He was going to have to leave the bag and come back for it. He couldn¡¯t just leave it anywhere he didn¡¯t know what was about and needed to be able to come back for that stuff. So reaching into the bag he pulled out a large knife and a length of rope. Putting the knife to one side he tied a knot in one end of the rope to give it some weight, then after several attempts he was able to throw it over a sturdy branch in a tree right on the edge of the woods. Tying the rope round the bag, then with a lot of heaving and pulling he was able to raise the bag into the tree, it then took some climbing up and down but eventually he had the bag nestled nicely in the crook of a sturdy branch and tied down so it couldn¡¯t go anywhere. Once on the ground he used the tip of one pointed finger to carve a big X into the tree to mark which one it was, then marking a few trees on either side of it with arrows, pointing towards the tree that held his bag. Hopefully that would be enough for him to find it again. Large knife in hand he set of again towards the river this time at a much faster pace. He was now in a grass plain with a spars scattering of gnarled trees, a gentle slope towards the river which was still quite a distant away only really visible by the flashes of light reflecting off of it. The grass was tall and green but slightly dry in the hot sun, it reached about mid-thigh on Gar, so he kept his pace reasonable to watch out for holes and rough spots but otherwise the grass wasn¡¯t much impediment to him. A fifteen minute walk later and he was hot, the grass was becoming more annoying and Gar was realising the river was further away than he thought. One thing he had noticed was he wasn¡¯t sweating, that could have been because gargoyles couldn¡¯t sweat or they needed more than this to sweat. As of yet he had no idea if this was a good thing or not it was just a thought that had occurred to him while walking. Gar was pulled out of his musings by a sudden pain in the back of his leg, there was a cut across the back of his calf it wasn¡¯t too bad but it was bleeding a bit. Not sure what happened and not noticing anything nearby Gar cautiously continued forward eyes and ears peeled for any signs of, well anything. It was only a few steps later when Gar received another cut in the same leg and as he span knife out to face whatever had attacked him he received another cut on his other leg. With no sign of any attacker and now pain in both legs, Gar needed no more convincing and took off back the way he came receiving one more cut on his way. After running for a minute and no more signs of attack he redirected towards the nearest tree in the sea of grass and climbed up it nestling in its branches well off the ground.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. He spent a good while observing his surroundings looking for any sign of his attacker but had already figures they must be hiding in the grass. There was no sign of anything no hint of anything in the grass, but with no desire to go back there himself he took the opportunity to examine his legs. The cuts weren¡¯t bad, all but the last one had already stopped bleeding but they still hurt, on a side note his blood was a blue grey colour but that currently seemed unimportant. Deciding that the cuts needed no more attention and they were nothing serious. The injury¡¯s though reminded him of another thing. As he thought of it, it popped up on the edge of his vision, a health bar the bar was a blue grey colour and mostly full, it only took Gar another thought to know he had 107/126hp. Amounting to losing about five hp apiece to each attack. He hadn¡¯t read that he had just kind of known it when he thought about it, that seemed somewhat useful. Those cuts weren¡¯t dangerous alone but enough of them could easily be trouble, seeing no other option and really not wanting to go back into the grass, those cuts stung, Gar got as comfortable as he could in the tree and watched the grass, particularly the area where he had run from, it was pretty obvious he had left a trail of flattened grass wherever he had went. It was a hot day, but the shade in the tree was quite nice, he would have liked a drink as well but whatever was in the grass was between him and the water. So he waited and waited he wasn¡¯t sure how long he was up in the tree but he saw no signs of anything in the grass, despite feeling like whatever had attacked him was still there. While waiting eventually a few of what looked like small deer, but slightly off, wondered into the grass towards the river, as they passed the area where he was attacked, he missed what set them off but suddenly they were running all of them, although one of them seemed to be having some trouble, watching that one closely Gar saw is yelp, cry out and rapidly change direction this happened several times before gar saw it. Something had attacked the deer thing it had been green and quick, attacking from behind. It took several more attacks before he was able to piece together what was going on these green topped balls where jumping out of holes in the ground as the creature passed taking quick attacks before dropping back into their hole leaving only there grass like tops visible, as the creature ran on more and more would pop out and take a cut as it passed before dropping back into their hole, it was an almost perfect example of death by a thousand cuts. The deer creature was slowing now legs almost crippled from cuts, and blood loss, it was brutal but effective, the deer creatures group were long gone by now leaving the weakened one. It didn¡¯t take much longer before the thing fell to the ground and a minute or so more before it stopped moving altogether. It was only once the thing had completely stopped moving did any of the attacking creatures comes out of there hole and Gar got his first real look at them. They were two short muscled legs with what look like a large claw on the feet, a round body which is also the head, small eyes low down and a large mouth almost running the width of its body with the top of it growing ¡°fur¡±, ¡°hair¡±, whatever it was it stood straight up and looked an awful lot like the surrounding grass, it¡¯s what gave them there perfect camouflage when sat in there holes. Once confirming the death with a slash to the throat the creature sliced off a chunk of the animal grabbed it in its mouth and went back to its hole. ¡°New skill acquired Observe level 1¡± Flashed up in his vision Gar blinked it away so he could continue watching. In quick secession a series of these creatures came out sliced of a chunk and returned to hiding, in a matter of minutes the entire corpse was gone bones and all. All while only one of the creatures had ever been exposed at a time. Looking around now Gar was even more worried than he had been before these things where vicious, deadly, and could be anywhere, having already proven he was considered prey. If he had chosen to run towards the river instead of back the way he came it would be him that was dead now and served up in chunks. He needed access to the water though so he was going to have to find a way to spot these things. Gar thought about going around or approaching the water from a different angle but he had no idea how many of these things there where if there were more groups or anything like that. So he would prefer to learn as much as he could from this group he found, especially as his watching had allowed him to work out roughly the area of them and where there territory seemed to start. Deciding he was going through these things to get to the water, Gar started focusing in on where he had seen several of them drop into their hiding holes, because the first step to getting past them was going to be finding them. Gar watched for over an hour more and in that time came up with several observations, the first was that many of the places where he thought they had returned to seemed to have red marking around, remnants of previous preys blood he suspected, the other thing was that the tufts he thought where these creatures seemed a more vibrant green, much of the grass around here had gone a slight yellow from the sun. These two things where what allowed him to start coming up with a plan along with several assumptions he was making about their habits, such as they only ever had one exposed at a time and that they would not give chase preferring to return to their holes and wait. 3: The wait to kill Several hours now in the heat of the sun Gar could tell he was starting to need some water; it wasn¡¯t as severe as he thought it should be but he could tell it was starting to become something he needed. So he needed to get past these things. With that in mind he set into motion, first he returned cautiously towards the woods. Quickly finding what he was looking for a stick relatively straight sturdy and about as long as he was tall. He was loathed to do it but he cut about a foot of rope off the end and unwound it to get some thinner cords. Using his knife to cut one end of the stick into a point he then used the cord to tie his knife to the other end of the stick, the spare bits of cord went into his pocket. He now had an improvised spear, not the best in the world but it should hopefully do for now. With spear in hand Gar started advancing towards the river again, slow and cautiously, once he got to where he was a few meters from where he believed the creatures where hiding he started swinging his spear back and forth at ground level while moving sideways for a few meters before taking a step forward and repeating the action going in the other direction. This wasn¡¯t cutting much of the grass but in its slightly dry state it was enough to mostly flatten the area he passed. a few more steps forward repeating this behaviour and he saw his first slightly red patch and greener grass, taking care he flatten the grass in front of it while staying back at maximum reach with his spear. Once he had a clear area Gar took a moment to observe the spot he thought one of these creatures was at, and he really couldn¡¯t tell it did look like just a slightly more vibrant patch of grass. Not willing to take a chance he took a good two handed grip on his spear aimed downwards into the base of the tuft of grass and then stabbed forwards, he penetrated, unsure what though he lifted the spear up and was almost surprised when it brought the body of one of those things with it. He had been right and it looked like the one hit had been enough, which wasn¡¯t too surprising as the blade of the large knife had gone almost all the way through the creature. Not wanting to hang around to see what the others did after one of their own was killed Gar grabbed the body off his spear and with creature in one hand and spear in the other ran back to the tree he had been hiding in earlier. Back up the tree Gar stopped and rested, grabbing one of the strings from his pocket he hung the dead creature by its ankles from a branch. That would hopefully drain the blood from the thing. He didn¡¯t know much about hunting but he was pretty sure that was a thing you did, drain the blood out. With a successful kill and no sign of anything following, Gar allowed the feeling of minor irritation to distract him for a moment, it wasn¡¯t an extreme feeling and he knew it could be easily ignored. It was like that feeling when someone is staring at you from across a room, nothing concrete nothing solid but it was still there all the same and now he was paying attention to it, it responded words appeared before his eyes. ¡°You have killed a level 3 conrex 6 experience awarded¡± So he had got himself his first experience that was exhilarating, also it appeared this thing was called a conrex and was actually level 3. All this was fascinating but it also reminded Gar of another message popping up a message about a skill. Remembering it now Gar opened his status sheet Race: Gargoyle Name: Gar Level: 1 Experience to next level: 6/100 Health: 126/126 Stamina: 109/109 Mana: 62/62 Constitution: 11 Endurance: 8 Strength: 12 Agility: 5 Dexterity: 5 Willpower: 8 Wisdom: 6 Intelligence: 6 Charisma: 3 Perception: 7 Luck: 5 Abilities Racial: Personal Skills Yes the new skill was right there at the end of his status, it let him see details of his surroundings that could be useful depending on what it meant. Looking at his status also reminded Gar of something else his ability mana sight. He realised then that both of them might help him find these hidden enemy¡¯s. Wait when had these things changed in his mind from creatures blocking his way to enemy¡¯s to be destroyed. It was a subtle difference that Gar almost overlooked in his excitement of testing new skills and abilities. Starting with observe, it was simple for him to activate the knowledge was in his head, with a thought he knew the skill was active; the change was obvious the world suddenly became clearer but that was it. He had expected something, some information maybe popups anything this really wasn¡¯t doing any of that. Deciding maybe he needed to focus on something he looked at the body of the hanging conrex. Then something happened, hanging in text above the body wasUnauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Dead conrex¡± Not much information, but then again the skill was only level one, besides even that much could be useful. Sat in the tree he started looking across the open grassland focusing on where he thought the Conrex were hidden trying to get his new skill to focus on them, pick them out, and make it easier for him. No such luck nothing popped up, for whatever reason it wasn¡¯t going to work. Just another thing he didn¡¯t know, he just hoped in time he would be able to work it out. Moving on he tried out mana sight, this time it took a moment to activate as he felt something flow up from his centre to his eyes before returning the way it came, the flow subtle but continuous. The change it made though was something else entirely. The world took on a whole new look there were colours and patterns everywhere, it was beautiful this really was opening his eyes to something new. His head was on a swivel trying to take it all in, this was magical, and that wasn¡¯t just hyperbole it was actually magical he was seeing magic, well the magical energy, the mana. This is what he hoped for in coming here the chance to experience things like this. Even with all of his excitement it didn¡¯t take too long before all of the moving and swirling colours became a bit nauseating and overwhelming. Unwilling to turn it off just yet but unable to take it all in, Gar turned and focused on the branch under him. It helped focusing just on the branch, he was able to ignore all the other mana and just watch the thin stream that flowed through the branch. It was a thin wisp of mana a light green in colour. Despite being so thin, it was still a continuous flow spiralling along the branch. He followed the stream up the branch with his eyes watching how it had split as a branch that grew off the one he sat on, that one a smaller branch of one he only just was able to see the mana flow onto it was so thin. Gar felt he could have sat for hours watching the mana flow, following the patterns throughout the tree. It fascinated him he wanted to take it all in, to understand it all. But he wasn¡¯t in a place to that he still needed access to the water, a place to stay, survival came first if he could get that sorted he could spend his time exploring the intricacies of the world around him. Taking that into mind Gar turned this new ability to try and do something that would be immediately useful, turning to look towards where the conrex where hiding, he started trying to spot them again. Only this time once he found likely areas he thought they were quite easy to spot, the grass around them held almost no mana so little he couldn¡¯t even tell its colour, but the tufts he suspected to be conrex where vibrant with rich red mana, looking at the dead conrex near him he saw the same rich red mana in it, not as vibrant and not really flowing any more but still the same red kind of mana. As far as Gar was concerned this proved the mana red tufts where the conrex, he had found a way to easily spot them. Having identified the conrex via their mana Gar tried one more thing hoping it would work the way he thought it would. He activated ¡°Observe¡± while keeping ¡°mana site¡± active, looking towards one of the hidden conrex and yes it worked exactly as he had hoped. As he looked at the conrex words appeared above its head ¡°Conrex level 2¡± And even better when he stopped focusing on that conrex the text remained floating above its head, a great marker as to where it sat hidden. Then testing another and getting a similar result ¡°Conrex level 3¡± He found the text above the first still remained. Swiftly he marked all the conrex he could see. By the time he was done he had twenty seven conrex marked, all between levels 1 and 4, but those where only the ones closest to him he couldn¡¯t see well enough to mark all of them all the way to the river. With these new found skills and ability¡¯s Gar was much more confident facing these creatures, so thinking he climbed down from the tree, tied the dead conrex to his waist, picked up his spear and moved back to his flattened patch of grass advancing forward in the same manner as before. He was confident he had marked all the conrex in this first part but wasn¡¯t going to take the risk that he might have missed some. It wasn¡¯t much further before he came across his first marked. It was swiftly disposed of with a single strike like the first one. ¡°You have killed a level 2 conrex 4 experience awarded¡± Unlike the first one though Gar left the body where it lay and waited, watching all around him but kept most of his attention on the closest marked Conrex¡¯s. There was no sign of movement, no indication they were going to act at all. So after a couple of minutes with no change Gar retrieved a string from his pocket and slowly picked up the body attaching it next to the first before he moved on. Things continued like this with Gar advancing slowly, the first level 4 conrex caused him to slow slightly and hesitate, its higher level might mean it could survive his first hit or avoid it, it was slightly anticlimactic as it went down as easily as the rest of them. It didn¡¯t take much longer before the conrex where getting too much to carry and he had run out of marked conrex in front of him. So he dropped the dead conrex in a pile in the middle of his wide flattened path and turned to angle his path towards a tree not too far in front of him. Taking it extra slow mana sight and observe still active Gar headed for the tree, it was taking longer without the pre-marked conrex but he was able to get to the tree safely killing a few more along the way, the area directly under the tree was pretty clear of the tall grass but Gar took the time to flatten it all around for a couple of meters. He then went back along his path and picked up the dead and returned them to the tree, it took him several trips as he refused to give up one hand on his spear or carry too many so he couldn¡¯t fight. the bodies where all hung from crooks in branches of the tree and cut to bleed, not that many needing cutting having their heads nearly split in half was a good way to bleed them especially when they are mostly head. He then climbed the tree and marked every conrex he could see, there were lots more now, all around him he must be in the middle of their territory Gar spent a good while in the tree even after he thought he had found them all, just to make sure, and if he was honest he was a bit scared by the number of them, way more than he expected covering a massive area. He did eventually head of again, this time starting towards the next closest tree in the direction of the river. It took a while meandering back and forth from tree to tree, it probably doubled the distance he walked but the advantage of being able to spot and mark the enemy from a safe vantage point was worth the extra walking as far as Gar was concerned. Each time he was getting close to the next tree and he hadn¡¯t been able to mark them that far away slowed him dramatically and raised the tension he felt. It took time but eventually he was on the rocky banks of the river. In total he had needed to kill Forty seven Conrex all but the last six hanging from trees on his route. It had netted him a total of 188 experience he had enough to level up, but Gar was refusing to look at that until he had a place to shelter, with the water from the river and meat from the conrex the only thing he was missing on his survival checklist was shelter. 4: First night Gar knew you are supposed to boil water first but it had been a long day he had done a lot of walking and killing and he still had more to do today before he could stop. So he scooped up some water in his hands and drank deeply. The water was cool and refreshing, he hadn¡¯t realised how much he had needed it before then. He took a break then, just five minutes sat relaxing, as he sat he turned off mana sight and observe. They had been on for a couple of hours now and it was starting to strain, so just sitting watching the water without really seeing it was good. He couldn¡¯t take too long though he had things to do before going onwards. He followed his path to the last tree, mana sight and observe back on just in case, he picked up the dead as he passed, hanging the new ones with the rest. He picked out the two biggest and strapped them to his waist to take with him. He would have loved to have taken them all with him but they would just slow him down, he couldn¡¯t preserve them anyway. He figured he might come pick them up once he found a place to stay, he also figured predators and scavengers would probably eat them in the night, which if there were any would mean they were here and not wherever he was that night, so Gar figured he would take that as a win as well. Returning along his path and getting to the river Gar started to follow it up stream his next goal was the lake it was one of the few prominent locations in the area so he figured it would be good to check it out, it was also against the cliff walls surrounding him and he was hoping to find a cave or something to act as some shelter. The uneven ground of the riverbank slowed him down a bit but it was still faster than going through the grass. As he got closer to the lake the land started to slope down the surrounding changed from tall grass with dotted trees to clusters of wiry, thorny shrubs and short grass Gar wasn¡¯t quite sure of why the change but was happy about it as it meant that those things weren¡¯t hiding behind every blade of grass, he could feel a tension he hadn¡¯t realised he had been carrying just seemed to fade away the further he got from that long grass. It was a bit over a kilometre before he got to the lake, it was big with a waterfall falling into it dark water from the shade of the cliff, the banks here where just bare rock, some small boulders with stones scattered around, it was much nicer walking than the stones further down the river. It had been a long day and Gar knew if this world was anything like earth then he wouldn¡¯t have much daylight left particularly in this hole, so he started to hurry round the lake wanting to find some shelter. The lake was large enough that it still took over half hour to get round it to the cliff face even at Gars hurried pace. It was getting dark by the time Gar got there, he had barely noticed as his dark vision had kicked in automatically he could still see same as day time at least at closer distances, longer distances where a bit more muddled and harder to make out but it would work for now. Gar started working his way around the cliff face looking for any sign of a cave he could use for shelter. He had only gone about a hundred meters or so before he came across a, well to call it a cave would be a bit grandiose for what it was, it was a divot in the rock face maybe two meters deep at most not even tall enough for Gar to stand up in but it should be big enough for him to sit and lay down in, enough roof to keep the weather of and should block most of the wind, not that there was much wind that he had noticed. It had been a long day for Gar he wanted to just sit and stop, rest for a while, but he knew if he did that he would struggle to get going again and he had a few more things to do yet. First he went to the closest tree, he had to climb it a bit to find some small enough, but eventually he half cut with his knife half broke off a number of branches before bringing them back to the little divert. He then made his way back to the lake to gather a few stones in particular he kept an eye out for some flint, he was kicking himself realising he should have been keeping an eye out for flint on his journey up the river, he was sure he remembered seeing some but hadn¡¯t picked it up he had been so focused on keeping an eye out for threats, it hadn¡¯t occurred to him he would want it later. It took a few trips to bring back enough rocks and a bit of searching but he did find some flint. Laying out a circle of stones to contain the fire and hold some heat he stacked a small pile of the smallest twigs, then started striking the two flint rocks together, but no matter how he tried he couldn¡¯t get the sparks to land on the twigs and light, the twigs where too young and green they weren¡¯t going to light. Chucking the flint down in frustration Gar started looking around what else did he have, his shirt would probably burn but then he would be topless and if it didn¡¯t work he would be even colder with a ruined shirt, as he shifted the Conrex bodies still hanging from his waist bumped him. Looking at them gave him an idea, untying his knife from the stick, he used it to cut a chunk of the grass like hair off the creature, feeling it in his hand it did feel dry, he hoped this would work, clearing the twigs out the way he placed the clump of green hair in the middle and started striking the flint. It took a while but eventually the sparks landed in the hair and they started to smoulder, a bit of gentle blowing later and he had a flame, as the flame burned he cut another chunk of hair and added it to the fire, he did this a couple more times before adding a few of the smaller sticks, slowly building until he had a nice fire going. The temperature had dropped with the last of the light but it hadn¡¯t bothered Gar much, the fire¡¯s warmth was a great feeling though and after getting it going he just took the time to sit and relax, pulling couple of sticks towards him he absentmindedly sharpened both ends of them with his knife, once done he stuck them into the ground next to him.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. After a break in his mindless whittling he grabbed the conrex body, the one he had cut most of the long hair off. He had been thinking about this since he had killed the first one, he was hungry and this was his only food. How was he going to cook it? He had decided that the conrex was basically a head with legs, and from what he had seen that head was full of all the organs so not much meat there, but the legs they were all muscle, so meat he could hopefully eat. Taking the tip of the knife he inserted it in at the top of the leg where it joined the body and ran it all the way round then with a sharp tug and a twist he was able to separate the leg, repeating this with the other leg. He then had two smooth skinned legs which he stabbed one onto each of his sharpened sticks before reposting the sticks so that they were stuck in the ground with the meat above the fire, not sure what to do with the remains he shaved of the rest of the long hair and bundled it up, it could be useful to start another fire, before just dropping the head in the fire to hopefully burn up. With all the things he had done that day done, and waiting for his food to cook, Gar did something he had been putting off. He levelled up, finally giving the flashing icon in the corner of his mind the attention it wanted and opened it. ¡°Level up you are now level 2¡± ¡°As a Gargoyle you gain 1 point to constitution, 1 point to strength and 1 point to perception, along with 3 free attribute points per level up. You may also choose a skill to advance a level¡± The grin on Gars face made it look like it was split in half, this was what he wanted this is the feeling he wanted from this world, the advancing. If he was honest with himself the day had been fun he had enjoyed himself, it was challenging and hard work but now he was sat here by a warm fire, food cooking a place out of the weather to sleep, he was happy in that moment. He opened his character sheet Race: Gargoyle Name: Gar Level: 2 Experience to next level: 88/150 Health: 136/136 Stamina: 112/112 Mana: 62/62 Constitution: 12 Endurance: 8 Strength: 13 Agility: 5 Dexterity: 5 Willpower: 8 Wisdom: 6 Intelligence: 6 Charisma: 3 Perception: 8 Luck: 5 Free attribute points: 3 Abilities Racial Personal Skills Free skill points: 1 It was rewarding to see the numbers in his status going up. He wasn¡¯t sure what to do with his free points but ultimately decided he didn¡¯t know enough yet about what everything did to distribute it wisely so he closed status and looked to his food, the legs looked quite charred by now being licked by the flames, but it actually smelt good. Picking up both sticks, sticking one back in the ground but so the leg was no longer over the fire. Then with a rumble from his belly he took a bite, or tried to anyway he just got a mouthful of tough burnt skin, taking his knife he was able to run a slice down the leg and peel of the skin, his fingers where a greasy mess by the time he was done but it appeared the skin had protected the meat from most of the burning. Trying again he bit into it this time he was able to get a mouthful of meat. It was bland and overcooked but Gar had wanted to be cautious, he might not survive getting sick eating undercooked meat in this situation. Having not eaten all day he didn¡¯t have any complaints the first leg was quickly demolished and then the second one swiftly followed. Now with a full belly and nothing else he had to get done, he started to realise what a long day it had been, he was so tired, throwing a few more sticks onto the fire to hopefully keep it going, before crawling to the back of his little cave, it wasn¡¯t particularly comfortable but he was full and warm and had been through so much that day it didn¡¯t take him long to fall asleep. 5: New home He awoke early the next morning, his first thought upon awakening was how uncomfortable he was, so that was it he had to get up, so he rolled over and got up. He had expected his body to ache after a night on the cold hard floor but apparently it didn¡¯t, he did a few stretches to try and get some blood flowing and hopefully wake himself up. It hadn¡¯t occurred to him to save some fire wood for morning so he couldn¡¯t start a fire. So that would have to be his first task of the day, picking up his knife he headed of towards the tree he had used the other day to get some wood he was able to return shortly with some wood for the fire, grabbing some more of the Conrex hair and his flint he was able to get a fire going, took a while and more patients than Gar thought it should but he did manage it. ¡°New Skill acquired Fire Starting level 1¡± A new skill, not a very exciting one but should prove useful. With that done and taking of the early morning cold, he turned to breakfast, the only thing he had was the second conrex he had brought with him, he just hopped that it hadn¡¯t gone bad overnight, he resolved to make sure it was well cooked before eating it. Before he could do that though the conrex needed butchering. Gar decided that now not so tired and in less of a rush to eat he would take more time with it, see if there was anything else useful or edible on the corpse. Deciding it couldn¡¯t hurt and might help him spot something Gar activated Observe and Mana sight with the dead conrex before him. The thing was about three foot long with about two foot of that being the grass like hair on top, it had narrow eyes very low on the face with a mouth just below it that was as wide as the whole face, it had a large split in the top of the head where his knife had killed it, the wound was filled with dirt and insects. Taking his knife he started to cut away the hair and gather it up, he had already found it was good for starting fires, while doing this he was a bit surprised to find a long thin pair of ears sticking straight up from the head, the same colour and hidden in amongst the hair. Gar finished giving the thing a shave which was a bit difficult his knife was a bit big for that kind of thing but he had managed, he thought about searching the inside of the mass that was its body and head but really didn¡¯t think there was going to be anything in there. As he was dismissing the idea he caught a glimmer of something inside with his mana sight. It was just a faint glimmer of something but it caught his eye. He knew he wasn¡¯t going to be able to ignore it so again he picked up his knife and this time sliced into the conrex body lengthening the cut that had killed it, being careful as he could so as not to damage anything inside, any more than it already was, he kept going until the body came away as two halves, it was surprisingly easy, the head/body bit seemed to have no bones just a web of a cartilage type substance. Once in pieces the insides just spilt out across the floor, it was a mess, a disgusting insect covered mess. Gar started poking about with the tip of his knife spreading things around trying to identify organs and find the thing that caught his attention, he had been hoping for some kind of crystal or core something that he could keep and might find a use for later but instead what he found was a pinkish purple sack, about the size of a walnut, what stood out was that it still contained a red glow of mana about it. He tentatively picked it up; it was firmer than he had thought it would be, like a mozzarella cheese, he wasn¡¯t sure what he could do with it, if he could do anything with it, he didn¡¯t think keeping it was an option it looked like it would rot and quite quickly at that. Staring at the thing with mana sight and observe fully activated focused on the organ something unexpected happened ¡°New skill acquired Inspect Level 1¡± Almost instantly the skill activated and a new pop up appeared in his face floating just above the organ in his hand Conrex Mana lung Breath in, breath out, now do it again but with mana Uses:???? Value:???? Quality: Poor Rarity: common Durability: 28/31 Rotting Gar could see how useful this skill could be, he had been right about not being able to keep this, the rotting tag on it, and it had already lost some durability. Needing to level up inspect to make it more useful he started inspecting all the weird lumps and organs in the pile of offal, most of the time it just failed and on the few times it worked he was just returned with conrex organ nothing else, he was not sure what was going on but Gar decided to just go with it and move on, he would keep trying and hopefully get some answers later. Moving on he removed the legs same as he had last night but stopped to check them over before he cooked them, he first looked at the big claw on each foot. Both appearing identical, about as long as his hand with only a slight curve down at the end coming to a point, and they were sharp, he used inspect on them Conrex claw A sharp claw and a Conrex¡¯s main weaponThe author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Attack: 3-8 Uses: basic crafting material Value:???? Quality: good Rarity: Common Durability: 40/40 Seeing this he decided they might make a decent pair of knives for smaller work than his big knife, so he set to removing them. He then considered the skin on the legs, should he keep that. It had been quite tough when he tried to bite it, but ultimately decided against it his knife had pierced it easily enough and in all honesty he would only end up with a couple of small scraps. So he skewered the legs on his sticks he set them over the fire. Then went to the lake to wash up and get a drink, he returned to the legs cooking nicely and a huge bloody mess right next to where he was sleeping. Yeah he was going to have to move on, he would not be spending another night here. But that would wait, at least until after breakfast, the legs were left for even longer this time and the skin practically fell off under prodding from his knife but the meat tasted ok and it filled his belly and that was the key point. Sat eating Gar decided on what he was going to do next, long term was obviously get out of this hole find civilisation make a life but what about the short or medium term, he supposed he needed a home base a place to store his stuff a place to come back to, and to put it simply this wasn¡¯t it, it made an acceptable camp out spot but for any period of time it wasn¡¯t going to work, especially with the bloody mess he made right nearby, so that was medium term goal home base. What was he going to do that day, following the wall round away from the lake seeing what he could find, see if there was a good location for him there. That decided and belly full, he re-tied his knife to his stick giving him his spear back, set the bundles of hair, the claws and his flint rocks on a large stone to pick up later, then rethinking he picked up one of the claws, wrapped one of his bits of twine round the base to create a kind of handle then put it in his pocket. Setting off with the cliff face on his right, walking away from the lake. The area near the wall was just lighting up, the morning sun just being high enough in the sky to shine down on the base of the cliff. Not much growing here just bare stone or patches of short grass, running his hand along the stone walls, they felt far smoother than he thought they should be and solid stone, there would be no repeating his trick with the tree to help him climb out. Gar moved cautiously round the wall keeping an eye out for anything of interest. He had been feeling a bit thirsty for a while wishing he had thought way to bring some water with him but it hadn¡¯t occurred to him before setting off, what caught his attention was that his hand was wet. He had been trailing it along the cliff wall as he walked, not really for any reason just doing it, feeling the sun heated stone under his fingers , now though his fingers where wet. A glance and then a longer look at the wall, there just behind him was a trickle of water running down the cliff face, looking up for a source he could see where it just started coming out the rock face a couple of meters above his head. Looking down the water wasn¡¯t even creating a puddle on the floor, being absorbed back into the wall and ground before it could get that far. He was thirsty and this should be fresh spring water, so should be safe to drink was all Gar was thinking. Feeling a bit foolish Gar looked around to make sure no one was watching before pressing his face to the rock and lapping up the cool water, it was a bit minerally but refreshing all the same he had to spend several minutes lapping, mouth against the wall to get enough water to quench his thirst. Having done so he set of again, only then it occurred to him he could have cupped his hands under the stream and drank from that, instead of pressing his face into a wall. Gar laughed to himself at his own foolishness and was just glad that no one had seen him making a fool of himself muzzled face pressed into a wall. He pressed on round the cliff, the ground was starting to slope gently up a bit and there were more trees about, old trees that had spread tall and wide. Nothing within at least twenty meters of the cliff walls but further away it was no longer the grassland, but he wouldn¡¯t say it was dense enough to be called a forest yet either. Gar was mildly worried about this new environment having new creatures in it, emboldened by his successes yesterday he couldn¡¯t help but think of them as potential food and experience, he had his spear and he was keeping his eyes open for signs of anything. It was hard to remain vigilant it was so peaceful no sound except the wind in the leaves, bright sunshine on his back, he wanted to just spend some time enjoying this pleasant place. He had to press on, it was too soon to be wasting time he did however promise himself when he had time he would come back to relax in this place maybe have a picnic. He moved with a bit more of a spring in his step. It was a while later when he noticed a cave in the cliff face. Unlike his little dent this was a proper cave. He approached cautiously, he didn¡¯t see anything at the cave entrance but his angle approaching from the side didn¡¯t offer the best view into the cave. Gar tried looking for signs of something entering or leaving the cave, he didn¡¯t see any but he had to admit he had no idea what he should be looking for with that kind of thing, he activated observe, still nothing stood out to him, he activated mana sight and from what he could tell from the colourful mana around him nothing stood out as unusual or in need of further inspection. Well lots stood out as needing further inspection all this mana was new and exciting and Gar wanted to study it all, none of it appeared relevant to his situation so he left it alone. Gar still wasn¡¯t convinced the cave was empty, he was thinking it might make a good base so it wouldn¡¯t surprise him to find something else did as well. He just didn¡¯t know enough, about tracking, about animals or about this world, because even the little he thought he knew could be completely wrong here. He crept closer, pressing himself in against the cliff, spear held tightly to reassure himself, he got close enough he could stick his head round the edge, dropping to the floor he stuck his head out and looked into the cave. The first thing he noticed was the smell it was rancid; he immediately decided something had to be living in there. The smell was so bad he brought his head back and backed off a couple of meters to recover before he even registered seeing anything. He knew he had to go back and look again but really didn¡¯t want to, steeling himself he crept back and repeated his actions from before. Again the smell hit him but knowing what was coming that time he was able to hold out and look around. Yes there was something living in that cave it was large and had dark fur, quickly activating observe he saw ¡°Young Dire bear level 8¡± 6: Bear ¡°Young Dire bear level 8¡± So that is what it was he was not going to be killing that in one hit, he doubted he could even get close enough to try, that cave would make a good home base and it was the best and really only option he had seen so far. He also wasn¡¯t sure he was happy with having a predator like that so nearby. There was also a small voice in his head screaming about the amount of experience that must be worth. In that moment he had already decided he was going to kill the bear, he just had to work out how. First he needed to move away and plan. So he went back the way he had come, before moving round in a wide arc keeping the cave entrance in view. When he got to one of the trees that would have a good unobstructed view of the entrance, he began to climb. He kept going until reaching a point with several large limbs growing in the direction of the cave entrance about seven or eight meters up. Making himself comfortable while watching the entrance he thought and planned. First what did he have; he had his big knife on a stick as a spear, he had his little conrex claw knife, and some string that was it. ¡°Really¡± He did have his bag of tools and bits back where he had started, but he wasn¡¯t sure how to get straight there from here so he would have to go back the long way round. That would take all day if not longer and most of the bits in there weren¡¯t ready to use missing handles and bits. ¡°NO¡±, he wanted to secure his base before he went and got that bag. ¡°Okay¡± so with only the stuff on him what could he do? He knew nothing he had on him and with the stats he had, he was not going to be doing a one hit kill on it, but he also remembered scraps of a documentary on ancient human hunters they didn¡¯t kill with one big hit, they would use lots of smaller ones, they would bleed their prey and drive it to exhaustion before finishing it off and that was exactly what he needed to do. That was all well and good in saying but while he couldn¡¯t kill it in one hit, that bear could most likely kill him in one hit, so he could not get hit because it would be over for him. To survive then he needed to reduce its mobility that would make it easier for Gar to hit the bear and harder for the bear to hit him. Gar had no ranged weapons and no confidence in his skills to use it even if he tried to make one. So the only other option he could think of was traps, pit fall traps where what he based his idea of, but not one massive hole, that would take too long and too close to the bear he did not want it coming out while he was digging and him be trapped in a hole with a bear, besides he didn¡¯t have a spade so he wasn¡¯t going to be doing that much digging. But with the aim to reduce the bears mobility not kill it, he realised he could change it from one big pit to lots of little ones all with spikes in that should hopefully injure its feet and slow it down. With that decided Gar started sharpening sticks with his conrex claw knife while watching the cave entrance Gar spent a couple of hours just carving sharp sticks; he had saved a lot of the smaller leafy branches to cover his holes and carved the thicker branches into stakes. He had climbed down the tree several times to place bundles at the base, and had made sure not to take to many branches from right where he was to still keep some cover, instead taking them from around the massive tree. Now ready to start setting the traps and still no sign of the bear leaving the cave, he climbed down, took his big knife which was removed from the stick, a bundle of stakes and a bundle of leafy branches. deciding to start with the traps furthest out, he moved towards the cave when he was about twenty five meters out from the cave entrance he got down and started digging using the large knife, he made sure to spread the dirt so there was no mounds. He dug until he had a hole that went up to his elbow and was about twice that roughly circular, that dire bear had been big and he wanted to make sure its foot fit in the hole, he then took several stakes which had been sharpened on both ends and drove them into the bottom of the hole, still leaving a good length of sharpened stake pointing up, he then took some leafy branches and covered the hole spending a few minutes to get it right, ¡°New skill acquired Traps level 1¡± Gar kept repeating this around a huge arc in front of the entrance, he wasn¡¯t able to do it as close to the cliff as he would of liked because the ground became stone and he couldn¡¯t dig, once he completed his arc as best he could he moved slightly closer and repeated, all the time keeping an eye on the entrance. By the time he had used up all his stakes and branches he had made over a hundred little pit traps ¡°Traps levelled up. Traps level 2¡±. The closest were about three meters from the cave entrance. By now it was starting to get dark again and Gar had seen no sign of the bear leaving. He retreated to the tree he had been in earlier, stepping carefully round the traps; he didn¡¯t climb it this time but merely sat against its trunk. Looking out across his handiwork, it was fairly obvious where his traps were, the leaves not exactly blending in with the grass, but Gar was counting on the dire bear not being smart enough to notice that. Taking the moments rest Gar attached his big knife to a new stick he had prepared earlier this one longer than his previous, he wanted the extra reach. That done and nothing else left to prepare Gar just needed to decide, was he going to wait for the bear to come out or try to lure it out. Having no idea how long until it came out and everything being set up and ready Gar decided it would be best to try and draw it out. He set himself up standing just outside his arc of traps, spear in hand, Observe active just to make sure he didn¡¯t miss anything. He was about to shout when the bear came out, he saw it as it came to the mouth of the cave, observe kicked inUnauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Young dire bear level 9¡± Floating above its head ¡°Observe levelled up Observe level 2¡± This thing was massive nearly three meters tall at the shoulder while all fours. Gar was starting to wonder if he had dug his holes wide enough to fit that things foot. That was when all thought left Gar¡¯s mind, the bear had turned and was looking at him, straight at him, it started to run towards him, it passed through the first few traps missing them completely but then it hit one. It worked better than Gar could have hoped the bears front left paw fell straight into a trap and with the momentum it had built up it couldn¡¯t immediately stop. It let out a bellow that hurt Gars ears as it crashed down into the dirt. Gar started to move forward to attack while the bear was down but it got up before he had even gone two steps, its front paw was at an odd angle and it wasn¡¯t putting it down. It let out more growls as it continued towards him but more cautiously now. Gar¡¯s luck held though as it hit another trap , this time the right back leg, it wasn¡¯t as dramatic as the first time but Gar did see as it lifted the leg several trickles of blood and one stake still stuck in the foot, although that was shaken out even as he watched. The dire bear now with two injured legs was unsure what to do Gar however decided this was his opportunity with such reduced mobility he should be able to use his spear to bleed this bear, and if needs be he could always lead it across more of his traps there were still loads undisturbed. The bear was still using its back right leg but favouring the left one. Gar started circling to its right as he advanced hoping to get round the back of it, or at least make it spin on its injured leg. He wasn¡¯t able to get around to its back by the time he was in range of his spear but he took the open shot he had at its side. He thrust his spear forward and the tip of the knife sank in ¡°New skill acquired Spear skill level 1¡± Not as deep as Gar would of liked but, he could cut the beast that was all he needed for if he could cut it once he could do it a hundred more times. Well that had been the plan but as Gar pulled the spear out the bear reared up, and a back handed swing of its front paw crashed into the spear smashing the stick and spending the knife flying, Gar started backing up trying to lead the bear into more of his traps, it was going cautiously and hadn¡¯t stepped in any more. Due to its caution Gar was able to open up some space between them, not as much as he would have liked, he was also slowed as he was unwilling to turn away from the bear and was watching where he put his feet as miss steps here would be disastrous. He was almost next to the cave mouth near the strip by the wall he had been unable to trap and he was preparing to use it as his escape route and run while the bear was in the middle of his traps, the dire bear had been growling and roaring at him the entire time. Suddenly Gar was flying through the air searing pain across his right shoulder and down his back. He tumbled and rolled and when he came to a stop, he saw with observe still active, ¡°Young dire bear level 8¡± The bear was now behind him ¡°No¡± There were two dire bears this second one had just come out of the cave; his health bar was dangerously low only 18 points left. The second bear had batted him and sent him flying with a single swing of its paw the claws having shredded his shoulder and back. Gar had never been so scared in his life, he had been confident if not in victory then in at least being able to escape with minimal injury, and now he was on the ground in more pain than he had ever experienced before with two hulking dire bears bearing down on him, ready to kill him, and in the condition he was in it wouldn¡¯t take much to do. The only thing that was keeping him alive at that point was the bears were moving slowly through his traps, the first bear having seemingly warned the second. Gar new he had to use this short time to get away, it was his only chance, there would be no fighting these hulking beasts. The simple act of rolling over to stand was absolute agony on a new level tearing a scream from his throat. The bears answered his scream with a roar which was the only reason Gar found himself able to continue, getting up with one arm, the right arm having no strength with the damage to his shoulder. Gar wanted to try to run straight through the clear strip near the cliffs, but he had no doubt the bears where faster than him, especially as injured as he was, his only chance was to keep them amongst his traps for as long as possible. So he turned from the clear path diagonally across his field of traps, it was his only hope. He started to move slowly at first the pain telling him to slow down, to stop, but the sound of the bears pushed him on, a walk, then a jog, then a run, he was striding over traps as he ran, each bunch of leaves a risk of death if he stepped wrong but also his saviours as long as he stepped right. The pain is not something Gar could have imagined, it removed all thought from his brain, and the only thing left was running, to run is to live, keep going to out run the pain. Gar got clear of the traps but he did not slow he did not look back. The bears were still growling and making slow progress towards him. Gar did not notice, he had to survive and to survive he had to run so run he did, the only thing that got through the fog of pain was his health ticking down to 13 out of 136 and a little icon in the corner of his vision he hadn¡¯t noticed before but he instantly knew it meant he was bleeding, that was soon washed from his brain again by the pain. Gar kept running ignoring what was around him, where he was going, everything. The only thing that got past the pain was to run to survive, so that is what he did. He continued to run until he couldn¡¯t any more. His stamina had bottomed out but he had continued on more stumbling than running still onwards, until he hit the river and could go no further, by this point his health was down to 8 out of 136. He had stopped at the river¡¯s edge then just fell face down unconscious into the river. 7:After Gar woke up lying in a muddy river bank. There was no slow waking, not knowing where he was or what happened for him. The pain was the first thing he noticed and that reminded him of everything that had happened. The pain wasn¡¯t the same agony as it had been, his health was at 33 out of 136 but it was still immensely painful. He took a moment to take in his surroundings still lying as he was, he was fortunate the current had flipped him over before he drowned. He had travelled most of the way across the cenote down the river; he could see where the river went into a cave in the cliff wall about a hundred meters away. Gar tries to sit up, only to get a strike of pain from his back. He had stopped bleeding the indicator in his vision had gone but the wound hadn¡¯t, pushing through the pain and twisting slowly to try and see his injury. He couldn¡¯t see it fully but found a mass of mud, grass, and debris stuck together with dried blood all across his back. The possibility of infection worried him but washing off or removing the mess could bring back the bleeding and he had no bandages and he had even lost what remained of his shirt in the river. Gar just laid back down, unsure what to do. As he lay there he thought; about his actions over the past couple of days, what he should do next, and the fear he felt. What had possessed him to attack that bear, why? He didn¡¯t need to, what was he thinking? Before the conrex the other day he hadn¡¯t killed anything bigger than a spider and now he thought he could kill a bear, and not just a bear but a massive dire bear, and of course there were two of them. How had he been so careless? Taking a massive risk and not even paying attention to the fact the level was different; it had been as obvious as a name tag letting him know it was a different bear. Gar had all this going through his mind; he couldn¡¯t understand it why was he taking such risks? Why was he fighting everything? Even the conrex had been a risk he didn¡¯t need to take. And now here he was with massive wounds and not even a shirt, and that¡¯s another thing that came to his mind why had he been so quick to abandon the rest of his stuff. Gar lay there in the mud of the river bank, his mind racing with thoughts and fear, he tried to cover the fear with thinking but it was still there. Gar was unsure how long he lay there in the mud but he came to several conclusions; One, since he arrived here he kept making decisions he normally wouldn¡¯t. Two, he still wanted to live and to do that he needed to stop taking risks and making dumb decisions. Sitting up again, slowly, Gar was surprised when his back didn¡¯t hurt as bad as he thought it should, looking at his health meter it had filled up, although it was almost as if part of it had been greyed out and it couldn¡¯t fill up any more. Tentatively Gar got to his feet, it hurt but the pain was manageable. During his thinking Gar had decided to fix one of his first mistakes, he had to get his stuff. For the first time as Gar stood there he noticed something, he was on the other side of the river. ¡°Crap¡± Gar said aloud, he already felt like just lying back down and giving up. He couldn¡¯t do that he had just decided he wanted to live, so to do that he had to push on. With little other choice Gar started walking back up stream, looking for a good place to cross. It was actually quite a peaceful walk, Gar was keeping an eye out for any predators but he saw none. It was a pleasant stroll along the riverside the sound of flowing water helping to calm his mind and the walking allowed him to organise his thoughts. He had been walking for quite a while when he came to a particularly wide part of the river and realised this might be the place to try and cross. He had looked at a narrow spot earlier but the water had been so fast he wasn¡¯t willing to risk it, despite part of him thinking he should try, as it was a short distance. Gar had kept moving though, he was done taking unnecessary risks. Although the river was about two hundred meters across at this point, Gar wasn¡¯t worried he had always been a reasonable swimmer and he could probably wade across a section near each bank, most importantly the current was much gentler at this point and the current was the bit he was most worried about. The walk had loosened him up, this was the calmest section of river he had seen, he was ready to cross the river here and now was as good as he was going to get. Gar knew all that, he knew that without any equipment he would die, but still he hesitated. He paced up and down for a bit before with a sudden splash he jumped straight in. only to stand a second later and realise the water wasn¡¯t even up to his waist, feeling a little foolish he waded on. The river did get to a point where he had to swim, he could only really do a slow one armed crawl, his injured shoulder stopping him doing more but it kept him afloat and moving forward, and while doing so the current carried him down stream, Gar did not fight it but let it take him along as he continued across. After all the fretting about crossing, the actual journey had been relatively uneventful. Getting out the other side Gar slipped a bit on some stones twinging his back but was soon stood on the shore, wet but surprisingly not particularly cold. With the grassland before him he set off. Before he even got off the stony river bank he stopped. He had been about to take another foolish risk he knew these grasslands had the conrex in them and with no weapon and not even a stick to flatten the grass it would be stupid to just walk across, besides he didn¡¯t even really know the correct direction to get back to his bag. Stopping and thinking Gar realised his best option for finding his stuff and for getting across the grassland was to find the path of flattened grass he had made the other day. So that is what Gar did with a turn he set off continuing along the river bank heading upstream to find his flattened path. It took a while and just when Gar was contemplating whether he had missed it he came across his path. Not all of it was as flat as he had left it but it was still pretty flat and was as safe a path as he was going to get. Gar spent several minutes scanning the path with observe and mana sight and there were no signs of any conrex or any other animals hiding on his path so leaving mana sight and observe on he moved off following his path. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! When he got to the tree where he had left the spare conrex hanging, another mistake he had made wasting them, the only sign of any of them was some blood on the tree and ground, but even that seemed less than Gar thought there should have been. It was starting to get late in the day now so Gar didn¡¯t hang around long and simply moved on, he was tempted to jog to help get out of this grassland sooner but it had been over a day, in fact closer to two, since he had eaten so he didn¡¯t want to push himself now and end up in trouble later. So he restrained himself to a quick walk, sticking to the centre of his path of flattened grass keeping his head moving always on the lookout with mana sight and observe continually active. He wished he could keep the active all the time but it was too much information, it was mentally draining. He would work on it trying to use them more, but for now he was going to have to use his best judgement for when to have them on, which worried Gar as it seemed his best judgement wasn¡¯t that good at the moment. Gar got a bit of luck and the trip through the grass was uneventful, it seemed his cutting a path through the conrex was to recent for them to have moved back in. It was getting dark as Gar made his way into the trees, even so between his path putting him in the right area and his marked trees pointing the direction it allowed him to find the bag pretty easily, also a large bag sitting in a tree wasn¡¯t exactly hard to see, another mistake he hadn¡¯t even made an attempt to hide it. Once he was back at his bag Gar wasn¡¯t sure what to do next, the sun was setting and it had now been two days since he had eaten anything, he was less hungry than he thought he should be, but still was worried about getting some food, but also worried about his proximity to those dire bears he wasn¡¯t sure exactly where they were from here but where still far too close for comfort, deciding he wasn¡¯t willing to risk a fire and draw attention possibly bringing those bears to him if he cooked anything. He was still terrified of those bears. So with his dark vision letting him see in the dwindling light he laboriously climbed the tree only really using his right hand to anchor himself not using it to climb as his shoulder wouldn¡¯t allow it. Settling down near his bag, he fished out some rope and tied himself to the tree, closing his eyes to get some sleep. Gar got to sleep easily and slept deeply but still woke before sunrise. His health had increased, as it seemed the wound on his back had healed some more over night, but hunger was certainly starting to become a problem. The darkness of pre-dawn didn¡¯t seem to be much of a problem for Gar¡¯s Gargoyle eyes, so after untying himself from the tree he unsecured his bag and lowered it down, with only a bit of a thump. Then climbed down after it ¡°New skill acquired Climb level 1¡± The skill gain was a bit of a surprise but a welcome one, perhaps if he levelled it up it could even provide a way out of this pit. Back where he started again but with a new perspective on things he still had the same priorities Food, water and shelter but a new one had been added to the list. Get away from those bears. He decided that to do this he should get across the river; he would not be able to settle while still on the same side of the river as them, he would prefer to be even further away from them but that wasn¡¯t really an option at the moment. So across the river would have to do. How was he going to do that though with all his stuff, Gar hefted his pack to test it and the extra point in strength did seem to make a difference but it was nowhere near enough to let him carry his pack the distance he needed to go. He considered putting all his free stat points into strength but he wasn¡¯t sure that would be enough to let him carry his bag all day besides his shoulder and back still wasn¡¯t fully healed. He wasn¡¯t ready to start investing those points yet when he hadn¡¯t had time to investigate he was still lacking too much information. Instead he thought for a bit, this was when his hunger made itself known and kept distracting him but Gar pushed it down knowing he could hunt some more Conrex¡¯s as he crossed the grassland and would stop to eat once he crossed the river. First though he had to work out how to bring his bag with him. His initial idea was of some kind of cart, but wheels would be complicated and take too long, he could just drag the bag that would be less effort than carrying it but it is likely to ware and rip before he got far. Realising he was going to have to make something but needed to keep it as simple as possible Gar eventually went with a simple sled he could pull behind him. The material was easy enough to gather from the woods around him, a number of sturdy branches about the same size, straight, and a bit over a meter long and all tied together to another branch across them top and bottom, it took some trial and error and time to work out the knots and to get it all tied together solidly but by the end he had a sturdy sled and a new skill. ¡°New skill acquired Knot work level 1¡± 8: Second crossing The bag was tied down to the sled, and an extra length tied at either end of the top cross pole gave Gar something to pull it with. Once everything was secure as it was going to be, Gar gave it a little test. The sled slid quite easily on the grass. He still felt the burden but it was manageable, much better than trying to carry the bag. Setting off Gar moved slowly but consistently. It didn¡¯t take much longer than it had the first time before he was at the tree he had hid from the conrex in. Having already decided to stop and hunt some conrex for food, he left the sled at the base of the tree and climbed up into it activating observe and mana sight He scanned along the sides of his flattened path in search of some more conrex to hunt, he was worried that his hunting of so many of them the other day might have scared them off. These worries were unfounded however as now he knew what to look for it didn¡¯t take him long to find a number not too far from the path. Gar scanned for all Conrex¡¯s near where he planned to hunt having marked them all in about five minutes he still spent ten more scanning to make sure nothing had been missed. ¡°Observe levelled up Observe level 2¡± Before he climbed down again Gar reviewed what he was doing and why, he wasn¡¯t comfortable with his own decision making recently. He needed food, so he was hunting conrex; he wouldn¡¯t bother with too many because he had no way to keep the meat. He was picking conrex to hunt because they were known which was better than trying to look for a new unknown prey. The conrex where only really a danger if unseen but he countered that because his ability¡¯s and skills let him see them. After the thorough revision of his actions, Gar was more confident of his plan so upon getting to the ground he tied a new knife to a stick he had brought with him just for this use. Once set he moved on bringing the sled with him. When he reached a spot where a marked conrex was near the edge of his path he set at it with the same tactic as before, he flattened the grass up to it before dispatching it with a single strike. ¡°You have killed a level 3 conrex 4 experience awarded¡± Picking up the body Gar looked into the grass where he could see several more marked Conrex¡¯s not far away, he felt pushed to go after them, to hunt them all down, Gar wasn¡¯t going to do that though he pulled back to his path. He repeated these actions with the next three conrex that where not far from his path netting him 7 more experience and a total of four conrex corpses which were added to the pack on the sled. Once he had four he stopped hunting them, part of him wanted to hunt more the experience and levelling up only seemed like a good thing. That wasn¡¯t the priority though and he knew it, perhaps another time he would come back and hunt to level up but for now the main thing was to keep moving. He did however stop at each of the trees that were on his path both to rest to let his stamina recover and to scout the next part of the path marking any conrex near it. Gar was aware he couldn¡¯t run with the sled and was reluctant to abandon it, the tools on it would be the difference between his survival and not, so he was cautious to know of any potential threats at each stage besides the opportunity to put down his burden even for a little while was welcome, the sled may of made moving his pack easier but it was still hard work. The marked conrex where a very tempting target, seeming to call to him, especially the ones right near the path but Gar had enough so he kept going past them. It took a while but eventually he was at the river, now was where things could be difficult, getting the bag across the river. Gar had been thinking about that for most of the walk, if he tried to swim with the bag on his back he would be weighed down and drown, even if he was to get the bag to float he would still lose it in the current in the middle, he had even considered tying a rope across the river from tree to tree to use as a guide to help him get the bag across the river, but all of these methods still required him to be in the river with the bag trying to fight the current and get the bag across, he knew he did not have the strength for that. So he went for another method. First he left the sled at the water¡¯s edge and went and collected some wood from the last tree he had passed, before stacking it on the sled. Then he set of downstream looking for a good spot, he walked for a while before he found it. It hadn¡¯t been easy bringing the sled along the rougher ground of the river bank, but it was an area where the river wasn¡¯t quite as wide as where he crossed previously causing a faster current but still quite calm. Using the extra wood he made the sled longer and wider but wasn¡¯t so worried about keeping all the sticks so tight together larger overall area was the goal. He then dragged the whole lot into the river¡¯s edge, it worked the bag was floating, well it wasn¡¯t sinking, the bottom of the bag was under the water. Dragging it back so it was just on the shore, Gar then took all the rope other then what was holding the bag down, tied them all together end to end before attaching one end to the sled and the other round his waist. He went a way back up stream then set out into the water rope trailing behind him, he walked as far as he could then dived forward and swam hard. He didn¡¯t try to fight the current just focused on moving across. Suddenly something snagged on his leg and he kicked out trying to dislodge it. It just wrapped tighter. He starts to panic. He lifts his head up and looks back it¡¯s the rope caught on his leg, but he also sees he isn¡¯t far from the shore, he dives forwards again the rope tight on his leg he gives up kicking just pulls himself through the water with his arms, strong powerful strokes only a little lopsided from his still sore shoulder. ¡°New skill acquired Swimming level 1¡± Whether that is a reward for accomplishing his task or the help he needed for the last push before he feels his hand scrape against the river bed, he fights to put his feet down, he can feel the pull of the rope in the current, fighting him, he pulls himself forwards feet and hands in the ground fighting the rivers pull on the rope, he scrambled up onto shore laying back. He leans forward grabbing the rope just below his foot leaning back as he pulls he is able to get enough slack to slip his leg free, where the rope had wrapped round it. The leg was sore but didn¡¯t look to damaged his back hurt worse. He wanted to rest but the job wasn¡¯t done yet, he had floated further downstream than he wanted and had to walk back up stream to the tree he had been aiming for. It took a lot more effort than he thought it would to walk that distance dragging the rope behind him. Once there Gar walked round the tree twice stepping over the rope, before untying it from his waist and retying it to the tree. Now he could rest and that¡¯s what he did, sitting down back against the tree staring at his pack across the river, his stamina low. He sat like that until his stamina was full and he had his breath back ready for the next step.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Standing he checked the rope was secure to the tree before taking hold of it and starting to pull it took some effort but he got the sled on the other side of the river moving, it then slid into the water, before the current took it down stream. At which point he let go of his end of the rope and watched as the half floating sled, now raft, carried his bag downstream and then when it reached the extent of the rope started to come across the stream, due to the arc as it¡¯s tied to the tree. In short order the bag and sled was up against the bank on Gars side of the river, it actually took longer for Gar to get the bag from the river¡¯s edge onto the bank than it did for it to cross the whole river, by the time it was done Gar was a muddy mess. Where the bag had come to rest had been less than ideal, right up against a steep muddy bank. Gar took a dip back in the river to clean off in the water, for the first time he realised he wasn¡¯t even cold in the water, he could tell the water was cool and it wasn¡¯t an overly warm day but it didn¡¯t seem to bother him. Chalking it up to part of his new physiology he finished cleaning up as best as he could, then he went and collected his rope from the tree, dismantled the extras he had added to the sled to help it float and set off again, downstream dragging the sled with him. He had considered going back up stream to the lake as it might be a good source of fish but it was too close to the dire bears for his comfort and if it was a good source of fish they would likely know than as well, so downstream he went following along the river bank. The gravel banks weren¡¯t the best for dragging the sled over but Gar managed and kept moving. As he went down stream he felt himself going down a very gentle slope, it appeared the whole area went downhill, the plants also changed less grass and shrubs near the river like he had seen and more trees but these where tall and thin with no lower branches, Gar wondered about the reason for the change but had no clue as to why. He could see the river disappeared into the cliff face through a large cave, in fact the wall of the cenote on this side looked like Swiss cheese covered in caves, some on ground level some of them part way up the rock wall. It was an impressive site with the river plunging into the biggest cave at the base and disappearing into the darkness inside. The awe-inspiring site brought nothing but dread to Gar, he now knew what kinds of things could be living in those caves. It had been a long day and Gar had been planning to rest once he reached the cliff wall, but not now. It would take him to long to check all these caves today and there was no way he was stopping here without checking them. So he started moving away from the river while still a good distance from the caves, still following the cliff wall round not wanting to get to far from it either. Fortunately the trees where spread out enough to easily let him bring the sled through but stopped enough growth under them he didn¡¯t have to worry about any conrex hiding in long grass. Gar was getting tired, he was hungry, his nerves were frayed and he had been pulling this sled all day. He needed to stop, to rest, to eat but all of that had to wait he needed to find a safe place first, to do that but he wasn¡¯t sure what form that place would be. The caves in the wall had stopped after a couple hundred meters so once clear of them he moved closer to the cliff wall, searching for a place to rest. Then he found a place, a place that might be good. From what he could see it was a plateau off the cliff wall; it stuck out thirty meters and was about Fifteen meters up. From his angle he couldn¡¯t see how long it was, what Gar could see as he approached it was that it had several trees on it. If it was clear on top it might be an ideal spot. Once he was up to the base of the plateau Gar dropped the rope for the sled, he was so ready for a rest but he wasn¡¯t willing to stop yet, he felt he was so close to somewhere that could potentially offer him some safety he couldn¡¯t stop yet. Standing at the base of the wall he looked up at this angle it looked a long way pulling a rope from his bag he secured it to his waist and tied the other end to his bag he had his spear slung over his back with a bit of rope, that wasn¡¯t helping, but he reached up took a hold of the rock and started to climb, the other hand then onto the foot then the other foot, start again hand, hand, one foot then the other. Repeat again arm, other arm, foot, other foot, a slip, a grab, hold breath. Gar in that moment couldn¡¯t have said how far up he was or how far he had to go, he was tired, hungry and scared but he just couldn¡¯t stop, not yet, a bit more, he kept going. Then he reached out a bit too far and he was falling, unsure if he let go, he slipped or if the rock gave out. He had no time to think before he hit the ground, hard. His wounded back flared to life with pain his breath driven from him. His stamina half empty and filling ever so slowly, his health missing a third. He just lay there wanting to close his eyes and stop, just give up. No. he had decided he was going to do this, he didn¡¯t get to give up, giving up now might mean his death. So instead he slowly got to his feet, stood in front of the wall, one hand on the wall then the other, then one foot and then the other again he began to climb focused on nothing but the rock he climbed and climbed one hand after the other. He felt like he had been climbing for ages and wanted to look up to see how far he had to go but he focused on the rock just in front of himself and kept climbing it wasn¡¯t much longer and his hand went over the top shortly followed by the rest of him. He just lay there breathing heavily at some point in the climb his climbing skill had levelled up he could see the notification now ¡°Climb levelled up Climb level 2¡± But he just blinked it away. He lay on his back resting but tipped his head up to look around suddenly aware he had no idea what was actually up here, he was relieved to see not much, it was a relatively flat area with three trees spread out not to far from him and a carpet of short green grass or moss with some large stones near the Cenote wall. Getting up he first went to the closest tree and untied the rope from his waist and tied it to the tree he wasn¡¯t ready to deal with that yet, he was not going to lose it though so tied to the tree it was. He took a walk around the thirty by fifty-ish meter area. There really wasn¡¯t much too it, it was flat open ground other than those three trees. That is until he got to the wall near the far side of the plateau, set into the wall a few meters from the furthest edge was a small cave, small enough that even on his hands and knees it would be a tight fit for Gar. That would need to be investigated but not right now. Gar activated mana sight and observe to check there was nothing near the entrance, which there wasn¡¯t, he then rolled a number of the largest stones over the cave entry before stacking more around them so they wouldn¡¯t move easily. Accepting that the hole was sealed as best as he could for now Gar had one last task and he would stop for the day. He returned to the tree he had tied the rope to, took the rope in hand running it around his back and pulled, leaning into it, he felt the bag and sled down below start to move. He didn¡¯t have the strength to pull hand over hand so instead he bent his knees flexed, took the strain and took a step back, slow and steady as he repeated his bag began to rise. He kept going and the bag kept rising he could now see the sled rising over the lip of the plateau. ¡°New skill acquired Hauler level 1¡± Gar kept going pulling until the sled and bag where over the edge tipping onto the top. Gar took several more steps just to make sure it wouldn¡¯t fall back down before he just let go and dropped to the floor to relax. He hadn¡¯t planned on it but now with nothing else he had to do and a somewhat safe place, Gar was asleep on the ground before he had another thought. 9: Taking stock Gar awoke the next day to the sun on his face and an ache in his body, particularly across his back. There was also a surprise for him in the form of a notification in front of his face ¡°New stats added to status: +2 Endurance, +1 Strength¡± This caused Gar to immediately sit up; he had gained stats when and how? This defiantly hadn¡¯t been there when he went to sleep; well Gar didn¡¯t think it had. Could he gain stats from doing things, it would make some sense he had pushed himself physically yesterday, particularly endurance and strength. He would have to make a study of his status later and see if he could test this theory. Before all that Gar hadn¡¯t eaten in several days now and he was hungry, so he set to the things that needed doing to prepare some food. First he found a spot near the cliff wall that was clear grass and moss he then set up a circle of stones to contain the fire, when gathering the stones he found a large relatively flat one which he set off to one side from the fire area. He then gathered sticks from the trees, there wasn¡¯t much he could gather but he hoped it would be enough to be able to cook breakfast. Going over to his bag he took the conrex from where they had been stored. They weren¡¯t the freshest now, but he hoped if he cooked them well they would be okay for eating. Taking them over to the flat rock he laid one upon it, using his big knife he cut off one of the claws, using a scrap of leather from his bag he wrapped the back end of the claw giving him a smaller but very sharp knife. Taking his new knife Gar cut a chunk of conrex hair, putting the hair in his pocket as he went back to his bag and started searching through it. He had dropped several flint stones in there from the river bank after crossing. Now they were nowhere to be seen. After several minutes of trying to move things around and find them Gar gave up, undid the big flap and just tipped everything out onto the floor watching to make sure nothing rolled away. He had planned to go through that lot anyway so now it had just been moved up the list, spreading everything out Gar was able to find a couple of fist sized flint stones, with the flint, conrex hair and sticks, he built and started a fire in his fire pit. Letting that get going Gar returned to the conrex on the stone. Using the claw knife he finished removing the hair of the conrex, setting that to one side, he removed the legs, and the other large claw. He repeated this process with two more of the conrex bodies leaving one, to look at later the six legs where skewered and put over the fire to cook. Gar had been carful but between inexperienced with the task and a set of hands that he wasn¡¯t used to, the relatively simple task of removing the legs had left him in quite a mess. It was only now occurring to him he didn¡¯t have water here, he would have to climb down to get some. For the time being he just wiped his hands on the grass and moss, which got rid of the worst of it. He sat down next to the fire and watched his leg skewers cook. He knew there were things he could be getting on with but he was going to take this time to relax and do the simple task of cooking which in this case just meant watching the meat in the fire. For something had occurred to him in the back of his mind over the last few days, he had seen no signs of civilisation and no way out, he was probably stuck in this cenote for a while, he couldn¡¯t be going all out, all the time. He needed to take the opportunities like now when doing simple things to relax. So Gar sat and watched the meat in the fire, turning them occasionally as they browned ¡°New skill acquired Cooking level 1¡± That was a pleasant surprise, Gar suspected that focusing on one specific thing was a big help to getting or improving a skill. He didn¡¯t overthink it though and just sat and watched the meat cook; once it was nicely browned he pulled it of the fire, biting it of the skewer. Gar was shortly polishing of all six conrex legs. The meat was a bit greasy and not much flavour but it filled his belly so he was happy. He had to wipe his hands on the moss again to deal with the grease; he really needed some water to wash with and to drink. He had one task to do though before he could go to the river to get water. So he collected a rope from his pile of stuff. He lowered an end of the rope down to the ground then walked back to the closest tree so the rope reached from the ground below to the tree, then grabbed that spot on the rope put a quick twist and a knot in it to mark the spot. Laying the rope out he doubled it over at the knot so he had double that length, then he added a couple of meters and cut the rope, chucking the excess back on the pile. He took the length undid the knot, laid it out, folded it in half and tied a new knot to mark the middle. He then put the rope round the tree so that knot was round the tree and both ends where laid out coming the same direction away from the tree but on opposite sides of it. Then going along its length he tied a sturdy stick to both sides about every half a meter. Once done Gar dropped it over the edge and saw there was just a bit of excess rope on the floor, he was happy with his new rope ladder. Grabbing the bucket from the pile, his spear from where he left it, he slung the spear over his back and held the bucket in his hand. When he reached the top of his knew ladder he stopped, he was still scared, he had found an area of somewhat safety and he had to leave it again. He did not want to do that but he knew he must, he needed water. Taking a deep breath to gather himself Gar looked out into the forest bellow. This reminded him there was something he could do that might make things at least a bit safer, he looked out over the forest bellow again but this time with mana site and observe activated. Gar spent the next while slowly looking over everything he could see. Which admittedly wasn¡¯t much the trees where still taller than where he was and the trunks and braces blocked much of the view, mana sight wasn¡¯t much better, he could see lots of new things with it flows and concentrations of different colours of mana but he had not had time to investigate this ability and didn¡¯t know what he was seeing meant. Turning the ability and skill off Gar wasn¡¯t sure if that had made him feel any better or not, but he couldn¡¯t keep putting it off he needed water and the river was the only source he knew of, so with the bucket in hand and spear slung over his back he started to climb down his rope ladder. While certainly easier than climbing the rock face, a rope ladder particularly one with the bottom not fixed was not a simple thing to climb, Gar made a mental note to fix the bottom of the ladder down soon.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Not letting anything else distract him from his journey Gar set off at a steady pace towards the river, he activated observe as he walked but kept mana site off, the colours where to distracting when not looking for something specific. For the first time since the bear Gar actually was enjoying himself, with observe active as he walked, things seemed cleaner than ever before and things he didn¡¯t think he would notice seemed to just pop out at him, like he saw some nuts in several trees and what looked like some kind of fruit in another. There were also signs of small animals in the trees and underbrush, it surprised him a little that he saw no signs of birds but he figured he probably just didn¡¯t know enough to spot them. Overall it was a rather pleasant walk to the river. The bucket was placed down on the river bank and Gar stood in the shallows and washed himself, getting the grease and blood from his hands before giving the rest of his boy a once over. It was only now with observe left active that he took note of the abundance of fish, they weren¡¯t particularly big but there were quite a lot of them in the shallows, leaving them be and now much cleaner, Gar grabbed the bucket scooped up some water and took a drink. He didn¡¯t hang around any longer; having drunk his fill he refilled the bucket and set off back it was a slower trip back to avoid spills but just as uneventful. Reaching the ladder Gar knew he was going to have to fix the base or he had no chance of getting this water up he had already splashed himself just carrying it from the river. Putting the bucket down he went and found two Y shaped branches about as thick as his finger, he broke the tail of so they looked more like a V, Cut one side shorter and sharpened the longer end, Then tying loops in the ends of the rope such that the loops where against the floor when the ladder is pulled tight, he turned the V over and putting the sharp end through the loop then into the ground hammering it in with the butt of his knife, they were crude but effective pegs. Standing on the bottom rung of the ladder it felt much better, much more stable, not perfect but better than the climb down, jumping off he grabbed his bucket and started to climb, it was slow going and he did lose a little water but was able to get up with a mostly full bucket. Tipping the water carefully into his two sauce pans Gar then drank the rest, turned around and headed back to the river to refill his bucket; it was a pain but would hopefully mean he was set for water for the rest of the day. The second trip went just as smoothly as the first and it wasn¡¯t long before Gar was back. Having sufficient water for the day he had two options for what to do next; either it was find some food or organise his equipment. He felt finding food was probably the correct choice, but he rationalised sorting his equipment would let him sort shelter sooner and that was also a priority it also meant he could stay in his place of perceived safety for a while longer. Decision made he started straight away, first he started by laying everything out so he could see what he had; He had managed to fit a lot in that bag, no wonder it was so heavy, but he hadn¡¯t known what he would need and he wanted as much stuff as possible that might be useful or he could sell as they hadn¡¯t offered any money. To make a lot of this stuff useful they were going to have to be given handles, he had removed them to save weight and space but now it seemed they were going to have to be replaced. He had really hoped to just be able to sell the metal parts. He grabbed his cup and filled it with water from the saucepan and took a drink. He had no other choice but to explore the forest, both for wood to make handles with and hopefully to gather some food. Dropping his now empty cup he grabbed his bag added the wire, the snips, one of the short lengths of rope, the conrex knife, and the burlap sacks to it. Slung it over his back while picking up his spear and went back down the ladder to the forest. Moving slowly now he was in the forest he activated observe, remembering several trees of interest on his water runs he starts along the same route. He moves slowly to not make too much noise and to let him look over everything picked out by observe as he passed. He came to a tree that had some kind of hard nuts scattered around the base and he can see green fleshy pods up in the branches. Observe let him see that several of both the nuts and the pods had been chewed on by something. Taking this as a good sign Gar took one of the sacks and started collecting any intact looking nuts on the ground, he had to search quite far because the tree had a large canopy but was able to get a couple of kilos of nuts. Looking up at the fleshy pods Gar decided they were worth a try as well so leaving all but his knife on the ground he climbed the tree to pick, cut, and shake free a number of the pods. It didn¡¯t take long before Gar was back on the ground gathering the pods he had dropped, into the sack he then tied off the sack and put it in his backpack. 10: Supplies and settling in He was unsure if it was because of the skill or just because he saw it but when putting the sack in his backpack he saw the wire and realised he had almost missed an opportunity. He had planned to try and spot some animal tracks going to the water and set up snares on their path but something was obviously eating here so it was an opportunity to catch something. He then spent the next half hour setting up snares around the area. He¡¯d only really known about them in principle in the past but his trap skill seemed to be carrying him through. In fact ¡°Traps levelled up traps level 3¡± Once he was happy with the snares he moved on continuing down his route to the river it wasn¡¯t too far and fairly easy to follow the sound of water, he was a little over half way there when he noticed a fallen tree off to his right. Checking it out he diverted and had a look it was a relatively young tree the trunk about as thick as his thigh and maybe three meters long, not knowing much about wood and not having tools to fell a tree anyway Gar figured this will work to make some handles for his tools. So he starts breaking of all the branches that he can and piling them up, this greatly reduced the weight even the couple of branches too thick to snap off got broken at the point they are thin enough to do so . Squatting down he took hold of the trunk and lifts at the base of the tree, the tree rises and Gar starts to move. It¡¯s a slog but the tree moves with him, he has to constantly stop and twist the trunk as broken branch stumps catch in the undergrowth but he makes progress slowly and surely back towards his ladder as the tree bumps along. ¡°Hauling levelled up Hauling level 2¡± Dumping the tree at the base of the cliff he returns to where he found it and collects the broken off branches, bringing them back and stacking them in a pile next to the trunk, it would hopefully be enough wood for now. A bit thirsty from the work he climbs up and grabs a drink it¡¯s a bit warm having sat in the sun but it quenches his thirst. He unloads the sack of nuts from his bag before he sets off again, with some wood sorted Gar is after foraging up some more food and anything else useful. Sticking to his original plan Gar restarted down his path to the river, once there he started along the edge of the tree line looking for animal tracks and routes as well as anything else that might be useful. Gar almost missed the obvious right in front of his face when he was looking at a hole in the bottom of a bush trying to determine if it was made by an animal regally running through. Only upon stepping back and taking a wider view did he notice the bush and several others around it had large purple berries, they looked similar to a blackberry, not bothering with the hole any more Gar pulled out a sack from his bag and started filling it with berries. The bush was spiky but Gar was careful and only got poked a few times, he spread out his gathering not taking too much from any one bush. With a good number of berries gathered the sack went back in his bag, he continued along the tree line near the river and was able to find several points he suspected where small animal trails to the water so he set snares on them where he could. Not wanting to go too far Gar turned around and went back to his base. At the base he took a number of trips up and down to bring all the sticks he had gathered up the ladder until only the trunk was left, it was too big as it was to get up to the base so he had grabbed his bigger saw when he was up the top last and set to cutting it in half. The tree was awkward and slow to cut but eventually Gar was able to snap the last of it, he then attached a rope to each half and hauled them up one at a time. Gar was hoping the things he had gathered where edible but he had no way of knowing. So he was going to have to take a risk, even if he was taking a risk though he would make it as safe as he could. So that meant taking it slow and careful. deciding to go with the berries first, for no reason other than that was the sack closer to him, he took out a handful of berries, found the ripest looking one he then inspected it in every way he could including with observe and mana sight. It was a bobbly purple berry about the size of a grape, there were no signs of mould or other blemishes on this berry, and the skin was shiny and clean. Mana sight let him see a concentration of mana packed tightly in each bobble, he hoped that was a good thing but really had no idea. After a thorough inspection and finding nothing noticeably wrong he rubbed the berry into the back of his wrist making sure to squeeze it to get some juice and pulp from the inside on there, after this he poured some water over his hands to clean them leaving the bit of mess on his wrist. Then wanting to wait for any reaction Gar went over to his pile of wood, it was time to start sorting out some handles for his tools, starting with the axe. The handle for the axe needed to be strong so he decided to use the trunk. Bracing the log between the ground and his body he held the axe head length wise against the log, then using a thick stick as a mallet drove the head into the wood starting a split, then placing a metal wedge into the split further along and driving it in to spread the split, repeating the process until the log was pretty neatly split in half. He took one of the half¡¯s and set it next to his fire pit. Figuring it had been long enough he sat down and looked at his wrist where he had rubbed in the berry, there didn¡¯t seem to be any sign of a reaction which seemed like a good thing but was not enough to convince him it was safe yet. Next he took another berry, again examined it and it seemed just as good as the last but this time rubbed it against his lips making sure none went into his mouth, he wanted to test it on more sensitive skin and that was his best idea, then it was back to waiting, He got on with the axe handle while he waited, he started by marking out a rough shape on the split log with a piece of charcoal from the fire pit, then using the saw he removed the bulk excess from the piece, dropping the excess into the fire pit for later as it came off. Once he couldn¡¯t remove any more with the saw he started refining the shape with a knife and the chisels and his stick mallet. It took a while of trying to find a good positon for this carving but he ended up with his back against the cenote wall and the wood between his legs with the other end of it braced against a large stone which he had found for the job. It was rough work and he got several small cuts while doing it but nothing serious. He had whittled it down to the rough shape he had marked off with the charcoal it just needed rounding off, but it had been several hours so it was back to testing the berry. He had gotten no reaction from putting the berry to his lips but the next step was upping the danger of it, he prepared a cup of water before taking another berry, slightly squishing it and then placing it in his mouth. He rolled it around in there for at least thirty seconds all the time making sure not to swallow. He spat it out then rinsed his mouth with the water before spitting that out too, then it was back to waiting for some kind of reaction.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. He returned to finish the shaping of his axe handle. The general shape had been completed, and the files had been used to smooth it out and take out the knife marks. All that was left was to fit the head, but before that it was back to testing the berries again, they had caused no issues so far. Picking up a berry he took the smallest bite of it that he could and swallow it. Back to the axe, slowly wood was carved from the top of the handle until the axe head would slide on with a tight fit. He then cut a slit into the top of the handle and a wedge out of another piece of wood. The head was pushed onto the handle and the wedge driven into the slot on the top of the axe handle to fix it all in place, the top and excess from the edge was then cut off flat. ¡°New skill acquired Wood working level 1¡± Gar now had a new usable axe, not perfect and far from pretty but a usable first try. He glanced over the axe with observe and could see several areas he could smooth off to improve it but he would leave it for now inspecting it he was able to see its information Wood Axe A basic tool for cutting wood Attack: 5-10 Use: Wood cutting Value:???? Quality: Poor Rarity: Frequent Durability: 30/30 It wasn¡¯t bad, the quality was a bit disappointing but he supposed he couldn¡¯t really expect more for his first attempt. With that done Gar reviewed himself, before the next step in his berry tests, he felt fine no upset stomach, no pain, his skin looked normal, well the same as it had since he got here anyway. He could move all his fingers and toes fine, no difficulty breathing so it appeared everything was good so far. Just to be sure he checked his status Race: Gargoyle Name: Gar Level: 2 Experience to next level 99/150 Health: 140/140 Stamina: 132/132 Mana: 62/62 Constitution: 12 Endurance: 10 Strength: 14 Agility: 5 Dexterity: 5 Willpower: 8 Wisdom: 6 Intelligence: 6 Charisma: 3 Perception: 8 Luck: 5 Free attribute points: 3 Abilities Racial Personal Skills Free skill points: 1 His skill list was growing but they were still disappointingly low level, he wanted to spend some time working on them. There was nothing in his status stopping him though, so he took the final step in his berry testing and ate a whole one, it was sweet a bit tart but not overly so, not a bad flavour over all. If this didn¡¯t cause any problems he would enjoy eating them and they would be a good source of food while they were still growing. He wanted to move onto the nuts but knew that he needed to wait and make sure he didn¡¯t have any reaction from the berries rather than muddling the results by adding another variable. Unsure what else to do Gar took this moment to review and to plan what to do next. He had a water supply it was a bit further away than he would like at several hundred meters away, but that was probably safer and he was just used to the convenience of a tap. For food he was pretty confident about the berries now and hopefully the nuts and pods would be good, he had snares set up at several locations which would hopefully catch him something. He could always cross the river for some more conrex now he knew how to locate them they were relatively easy hunting. He was sure there were more things to find he could eat, so for now it wasn¡¯t a problem. Shelter; he had been sleeping under the stars so far but he couldn¡¯t always guarantee pleasant weather he needed to get somewhere warm and dry, with his relatively safe location the only option was to make something. 11: supplies and settling in 2 So shelter was now the top priority. He still needed to put handles on his other tools but figured that the axe should be sufficient for now to at least build a basic shelter. Going through his wood pile he put the rest of the trunk aside ready for tool handles, the rest of the branches were to crooked or small to really be good for building anything with so where put aside for firewood. Gazing up at the sky Gar figured he had about an hour before dark so wanting to get this sorted as soon as possible Gar takes his axe and heads out to find some materials for a base. He starts walking around the base of the cliff at the bottom of his plateau, he was looking at the trees trying to find a good one for his needs, there seems to be quite a variety of trees here. He was a little more than half way round his plateau when he spotted a candidate. It was a tall pine about a meter across at the base and sixtyish meters tall; it was a bit away from the cliff edge but tall enough that if gar could get it to fall in the right direction it would hopefully fall straight onto the plateau. So Gar took a few minutes working out the right angle then started swinging the axe to cut a nice big wedge. The axe was sharp and Gars strength wasn¡¯t lacking so it bit into the trunk deeply with every swing, chunks of wood flying in all directions, not really knowing what he is doing Gar worked to take a massive wedge out the side of the tree practically halfway through the thing, before coming round the other side and just straight cutting, it was tiring work and it started to get dark, it had taken a lot longer to cut this tree down than Gar had thought. A few more swings and the tree started to fall it started moving quicker then there was a crash and the base of the trunk started going up, nearly taking Gars head off as it did the tree came to a stop not long after with most of the tree sat up on the ledge only about the bottom fifteen or so meters hanging over the edge. ¡°New skill acquired Felling level 1¡± Tired and feeling grimy Gar decided the tree could wait until tomorrow so he headed back up the ladder to base. With a saucepan still full of water he used the water in the bucket to wash up, then he lit a fire, he didn¡¯t have anything to cook on it so he just sat staring into the fire for a while. He was still so scared, he had been trying to keep himself busy to distract himself but he couldn¡¯t get away from it. He had almost died the other day and that terrified him, he had thought this would be his fun adventure like he had read in books. He would level up, become strong, go on quests, and slay monsters. He hadn¡¯t ever considered the fear, the pain. He had no real idea what he was doing and there was no one to help him, he had imagined spending maybe a night in the wilderness before finding a nice little town or village eating and sleeping in an inn at night, hunting monsters for levels in the day. Instead he was here, no signs of civilisation and not even a way to leave, no nicely prepared food just stuff he wasn¡¯t even sure he could eat. Through it all there was still this strange compulsion to do stupid and reckless things, he could ignore it now he knew it was there but it had him second guessing every idea. Tears where now rolling down Gars cheeks as the ball of emotions roiled inside of him he eventually curled up and fell asleep by the fire. Waking up Gar already had messages in his vision ¡°You have killed level 2 squirrel 2 experience awarded¡± ¡°You have killed level 1 squirrel 1 experience awarded¡± ¡°New stats added to status: + 1 Agility¡± Gar had to take a minute to think and understand what these messages were telling him. He realised a couple of his snares must have been successful which explained the kill messages but he didn¡¯t really know where the agility had come from he didn¡¯t think he had done anything particularly agile yesterday. He put it out of his mind, he didn¡¯t feel any different and more stats were only a good thing. Not feeling any side effects from the berry he had eaten yesterday Gar decided they were probably edible and would make a good breakfast. Gar grabbed up the sack with the berries picked up a handful, when he noticed his axe lying on the floor nearby, and it occurred to him had he been being stupid. Would that work? Gar looked at the berries in his hand and activated inspect Thorn berry Small sweet berry with a slight sourness Uses: Edible, ingredient Value:???? Quality: Good Rarity: Common Durability: 9/10 Gar was stuck between laughing and crying, it really just told him it was edible. Wasting no more time he stuck the berries in his mouth enjoying the taste while also grabbing the bag of pods and there nuts. Pulling out a nut and a pod Gar used inspect on each Axen Nut The nut of an Axen tree grows inside a pod until matured and drops out Uses:???? Value:???? Quality: Good Rarity: Occasional Durability: 13/13 Axen pod A pod from the Axen tree in which several nuts develop Uses:???? Value:????The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Quality: Good Rarity: Occasional Durability: 8/8 So neither of these showed as edible, did that mean they weren¡¯t but it only showed question marks for uses so he didn¡¯t know what it was for. This was so annoying, would inspect have shown no uses for the thorn berry before he tested it. Gar berated himself for still making stupid mistakes. Eating some more berries as he calmed down, he decided to go check his traps and see if his kills where still there to gather. Grabbing up his backpack, bucket and spear he headed off to see. First stop was at what he now knew was an axen tree that was where he found his snares had been successful, as he removed the first squirrel from the snare he got a welcome surprise ¡°Traps levelled up traps level 4¡± It was interesting it appeared he got the kill experience anywhere but needed to actually check the traps to get the skill experience, it was a good thing to know, Gar reset his traps and adjusted a few of the others for squirrel sized prey. He had previously set up various sizes not knowing what was in the area to catch, and he still left some of larger sizes not knowing if squirrels where the only thing in the area. Despite being pretty sure he knew what they were Gar wanted to learn from his mistake so used inspect on both squirrel bodies, Grey squirrel level 2 corpse The dead body of a woodland mammal the grey squirrel Uses: Fur, meat Value: ???? Quality: Average Rarity: Abundant Durability: 10/15 Grey squirrel level 1 corpse The dead body of a woodland mammal the grey squirrel Uses: Fur, meat Value:???? Quality: poor Rarity: Abundant Durability: 4/12 mangled/ rotten The level one corpse was not doing well, the head was nearly severed and the fur was covered in blood and other stuff. Deciding it was not worth taking with him and he might be able to get some use from it as bait he laid it out in one of his larger snares, it crossed his mind to cut it up to bait several snares but it was such a scrawny thing it didn¡¯t seem worth it so with that done the other squirrel in his pack and a bunch of nuts and pods already at base he left the axen tree and continued onto the river. He checked out his other snares along the water front and spent a bit of time resetting a few that had been disturbed but none had caught anything. That done he collected a bucket full of water and headed back to base. Back at base Gar decided the best thing to do with the squirrel would be to eat it straight away, as he had no way to preserve it. So he rebuilt the fire in the fire pit and went on to prepare the squirrel. Taking his small but very sharp conrex claw knife he laid out the squirrel on the flat rock he had been using as a work surface and stared for a while, he wasn¡¯t really sure where to start. He finally realised he needed to do two main things; remove the fur and the guts. With no other option but to try Gar started by cutting of the head. He then ran the knife gently down the front of the squirrel to try and only cut the skin, only to realise he hadn¡¯t pushed hard enough and had only left a scratch, trying again but harder Gar split the squirrel open from top to bottom dropping organs onto the slab with a wet slump. It was a disgusting noise, figuring it needed doing anyway Gar switched it up and worked on removing the organs. Not knowing what he was doing with a knife, and not wanting to cause more damage. Gar put it down and holding his breath so as not to gag from what he was about to do, Gar stuck his finger into the cavity and scooped out what was left of the organs, the tip of his finger being sharp enough to sever any remaining connections. Seeing how effective this was Gar moved back to skinning the squirrel but this time used a finger, working the sharp tip of an index finger under the skin along the cut on the front he kept working it round until his hand was a complete mess but the fur was off and the squirrel meat was ready. Not knowing what else to do with it and the body being too small to make taking apart worth it, Gar stuck the whole squirrel on a stick and put it over the fire. It was still early but Gar felt he had already done so much that day and knew that there was still so much to do. He was content in that moment to just sit and watch the fire as his meal cooked he did make the brief exception to get up and use some water to wash his hands after preparing the squirrel but other than that he just sat and turned the squirrel as it needed. Once it was cooked he dug right in, Gar caught himself thinking he never would of thought he would be eating squirrel but then again a lot of things had happened to him recently he never would of thought would happen. That just brought back the memory of the pain. Gar shook his head and stopped thinking and focused on finishing his meal, once done he threw the remains into the fire, and went and grabbed his axe and saw, there were things to be done. The tree he had cut last night, the top ten-ish meters had snapped off when it hit the far cliff wall as the tree fell, with the next thirty five-ish meters lying at an angle across the plateau, the last ten-ish meters hanging in mid-air over the edge. Hopping over the trunk Gar first tried pushing then rolling to try and turn the tree to get the rest of it onto the ledge but it wasn¡¯t going to budge. He briefly considered removing branches to decrease the weight and make it easier to roll, but he was hesitant in case he removed too much weight and the whole tree tipped off the edge. Seeing no better option Gar decided to cut off the overhanging piece. Decision made Gar set to it with the axe, cutting the treat a point just before it went over the edge. Gar was much further through the tree than he thought he would be before he started hearing cracking sounds, stepping back he watched as the end snapped the rest of the way off and fell to the ground below. He would have to work out if there was a way to get that up here later. There was still more work to be getting on with, starting with cutting all the branches from the trunk now there was no risk of it toppling off. Gar worked diligently through, only stopping occasionally to grab a drink or eat a few berries, it still took until the middle of the afternoon before the task was done and the branches where all piled up. He took a short break to relax his muscles before he was right back to it, he decided to leave the top section that had broken off as one piece after it had the branches stripped as it was much thinner but the rest of the trunk was going to need to be cut into pieces before he could even attempt to move it. So that¡¯s what he did, cutting it into two and a half meter sections. Throughout this task he was also testing the axen pod for edibility in the same manner as he had the thorn berries. Gar had managed to cut ten two and a half meter sections of trunk before it got late enough that he decided to stop. Gar had been working all out to get everything sorted to build a shelter, he had been lucky so far that it hadn¡¯t rained or gotten too cold at night but it would at some point and he didn¡¯t know when so he had to be ready. He collapsed down next to the fire which he had kept going all day chucking in offcuts and scraps of wood from his cutting. He ate the last of the berry¡¯s he had gathered, as he didn¡¯t think they would last much longer anyway. He was also ready for the last test with the pods, picking a nice one out of the sack Gar split it open dropped the two nuts that had been inside back into the sack then took a bite out of the pod, it was fleshy and fibrous with a savoury taste but slightly bitter not great but not enough to stop him eating it, if they were okay he might try cooking them in some way see if that improved the flavour, with that he curled up and went to sleep. 12: Worry and shelter ¡°New stats added to status: +1 dexterity, +1 endurance¡± No messages about kills so his traps probably hadn¡¯t caught anything but he figured he should still check them, he gathered up his bag, spear and bucket and went off. Gar suddenly went stiff and crouched down when the axen tree came into view, the area was disturbed, with furrows in the ground and scratch marks in the trees. Slowly and carefully Gar moved closer, activating observe as he did so. Words started appearing hovering in the air everywhere ¡°Axen pod¡±, ¡°Axen nut¡± it appeared they were all now labelled and marked, he didn¡¯t know why they had appeared but they were too much and he just wanted them to go away. No sooner had he thought that then all the labels hovering in the air disappeared, observe was still active, but the labels were gone, with a thought they were back, then gone again. Useful Gar thought but left them off for now he didn¡¯t want the distraction as he looked at scene. Most of the damage appeared to be around where he had left the squirrel. There was no sign of that squirrel or even the snare set over it, looking for the branch the snare had been attached to he could see that had been broken off. Gar looked around to see if he could make sense of the scratches and furrows, he quickly realised had no idea; having never done any tracking or hunting he didn¡¯t know what would make those kinds of marks. Observe did let him spot a number of small splatters of a green liquid on the ground most where the missing snare should be. Could it be some sort of blood, but what has green blood? Did Gar want to try and find whatever had done this? It was a meat eater having taken or eaten the squirrel; it was large enough to get caught in one of his larger snares and strong enough to snap the rather thick looking branch it had been attached to. Thinking all that Gar answered the important question easily, no, he did not want anything to do with this thing if he didn¡¯t have to. Gar moved quickly through checking the rest of the snares in the area and resetting any that had been disturbed, it was a rushed job but he didn¡¯t want to be hanging around. Gar then moved onto the river to check the rest of his snares, moving more cautiously this time as he knew there was a predator about, after making sure the rest of the snares where in order, he pulled out a sack and started collecting thorn berry¡¯s, He collected fewer than previous not wanting to collect to many and them to start rotting he only took those that where ripest, also while there he filled up his bucket with water from the river before heading back to base. With morning chores done Gar decided it was time for some breakfast, which reminded him, he was having no side effects from the axen pod he had eaten so taking this opportunity to test something he theorised he inspected another Axen pod Axen pod A pod from the axen tree in which several nuts develop Uses: edible, ingredient Value: ???? Quality: Good Rarity: Occasional Durability: 7/8 ¡°Inspect levelled up Inspect level 2¡± Inspect had levelled up that was great news, but more importantly the uses section had changed it was no longer question marks but now said edible and ingredients, was this because he had taken the time to test it or was it just because he had eaten it, he should of inspected for changes after each test. He would do that for the axen nuts. The pods where defiantly more filling than the berry¡¯s even if they were a bit tough and fibrous with an okay but not great taste they would help add variety to his diet. Perhaps if he cooked them they would be better eating he would try it sometime, he was unwilling to spend that much time that morning so he ate several axen pods and thorn berries raw for breakfast. Then it was back to working on a shelter, he still had a large amount of the trunk to cut into sections but the sections he had cut the day before should be enough for a basic shelter. He started by trying to roll them, they were still too heavy so he split them. Swinging the axe into the log lengthwise to start a split then using the back side of the axe to hammer a wedge into the split to widen and lengthen it before adding another wedge to take the split further repeating all the way down until the log was split in half. Gar spent the morning splitting the cut sections, he stopped for a drink and some lunch, in which he finished off the berry¡¯s he had gotten that morning. After some lunch it was back to work, he had some prepared materials but they needed putting in place, the split log sections were finally light enough that they could be moved by picking up one end at a time and shifting it a bit, like that Gar was able to get the first section where he wanted it, at about the middle of his platform against the cliff wall, he then lifted the log up and over its end so it fell as to form the slope of a triangle with the cliff wall and the floor. Once he had a total of ten pieces of split log lined up like that, flat side down tight up next to each other, he then braced the bottom of them with the top of the tree trunk, the ten meter section about as thick as his leg would work well to stop them slipping and to make sure it wouldn¡¯t roll away he stacked a number of large rocks behind it. He now had a good start of a shelter it would keep some rain off only the small gaps between logs being an issue.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Gar got the shovel head from his pile of stuff and crawled into his half-finished shelter, using the shovel head he scraped the ground clean lifting the moss and grass in large sheets which he placed carefully outside, a bit more work and he was down to bare rock with the dirt piled all in the opening at one end. The next job was to gather a number of straight sticks all roughly the same thickness, a job made simple by sorting through the pile of cut off branches. He ended up with several dozen straight sticks as thick as his arm and four long sticks that where only about half as thick. One of the thinner sticks was set into the pile of dirt at the end of the shelter, near the cliff wall, the other set into the dirt near where the split logs rest against the ground, then a thicker sticks was laid along the ground up against the two upright sticks then the other two thinner sticks were pushed into the ground opposite their counterparts trapping the thicker stick in place, the rest of the thicker sticks were then slotted down on top of the first building up an end wall for the shelter, one of the shorter bits of rope was then unwound to get some cords with which Gar secured it all together. ¡°Knot working levelled up Knot working level 2¡± The next job was going to be messy and Gar didn¡¯t think he would get it done that day even if he had started right then, so he decided to do some small jobs that need doing. The first job was to move the fire pit and build it better. He cleared the ground outside the open end of his shelter using the same technique as inside scrapping off the moss and grass in sheets then shovelling the dirt to the end of his shelter and pressed it tight to help anchor the end wall supports. With the space clear he set out a ring of stones to stop any coals rolling out and built the side that is out towards the forest up into a stone wall to try and reflect the heat and to try and hide the light a bit. The new fire pit was not far from his shelter entrance and close enough that he could warm by the fire while leaning against the cenote wall, all while he had been testing the axen nuts, using the sledge hammer head as a nut cracker, and after each test and then again just before the next test he inspected the nut, nothing had changed so far but it was good to know. Then he set to building two A frames just large enough that once done he could put them either side of the fire with a stick between them to hang one of his pans off. With his new cooking set up done Gar figured it was a good time to try it out so he built a fire in the pit. ¡°Fire starting levelled up fire starting level 2¡± Once the fire was going he put some water in a saucepan and set it over the fire to boil. While waiting for it to boil he turned to prepare the food, which would be axen pods, grabbing the sack of them he turned to the flat stone he had been using as a work surface. It was stained red and a bit of a mess where he had used it for butchery. Since he had a bit of time he went searching for a new flat stone, deciding he would keep the old one for butchery, maybe give it a wash though, and have a new one for other things. As he walked along the edge of the cliff wall, where there were a number of large stones scattered about, he came upon a pile of stones and realised it was the ones he had piled up. He knew he couldn¡¯t ignore it forever he would have to check out the cave at some point, but the thought alone made him shudder. Gar pushed it off for another day continuing along the wall until he found a suitable large flat stone. Setting it up next to the fire he sat on the floor and pulled out some pods, using his conrex claw knife he first slit the pod open, removed the nuts putting them back into the sack, then he laid the pods out and cut them into french-fry like slices. Why was he doing that, who knows; wishful thinking that they might taste like French fries if they were the same shape, lack of imagination, simply for something to do? Gar didn¡¯t really know about cooking it just always seemed the thing to cut up vegetables before cooking, by the time that was done the water had been boiling for a little while, so he scooped some out in his mug before dropping the chopped axen pods into the water to let them boil for a while. Figuring he had some time Gar took his mug and wandered over to the pile of branches, he pulled off a handful of pine needles and dropped them in his mug. He knew pine needle tea was a thing so figured he would give it a go. Heading back to the fire he had his mug of pine needle tea in one hand and was dragging a large pine branch in the other, the tea was still too hot to drink so was set down and Gar started stripping the pine needles from the branch and putting them into one of his sacks. He sat there stripping pine needles and sipping his tea, it was quite a pleasant taste, while he waited for the pods to cook. It was almost meditative; tea, a simple job to keep the hands busy, and just watching the fire. Gar would snap of a smaller branch strip it of needles, put them in the sack and neatly stack the sticks then repeat. It had been at least ten minutes since the pods went in, so Gar decided it was time to test them picking up one of the smaller sticks he used it to fish out a slice of pod and tasted it, it wasn¡¯t bad still the same taste as the uncooked pod except maybe a little sweeter and a lot easier to chew, softer than before, deciding that would do Gar using a sack as an oven glove removed the pan from over the fire then slowly poured the pod slices and the boiling water onto his work surface stone, the water ran off leaving him with a pile of boiled axen pod slices. ¡°Cooking levelled up cooking level 2¡± Gar continued to sit there watching the fire as he stripped pine needles sipping his tea and snacking on the boiled pod. Once the sack was full Gar emptied it onto the floor of his shelter, he repeated this with branch after branch and sack after sack, creating a flooring of pine needles that Gar was hoping; would insulate him from the cold ground, would be cushioning, and would not be damp like the moss he had slept on for the past few days had been. As he had been doing this he had also taken the time to go through the final stages of testing the axen nut. Gar had hoped to get one more job done that day but it had taken a lot longer to collect enough pine needles to cover the floor than he had thought it would. It hadn¡¯t been that hard a job though so Gar considered staying up a bit longer to do the job anyway, but going to bed with the sun set and getting up with the sun rise had been working for him so he decided to stick with it. Just a few finishing touches, he laid out one of his sheets of leather on top of the pine needles used his sheet of cloth as a blanket and a refilled sack of pine needles for a pillow and he was ready for bed. Laying down it was the most comfortable Gar had been since he had come to this world. 13: First success The sun was already up when Gar woke the next day, he didn¡¯t mind he was comfortable and for a brief moment he almost forgot his fears. All too soon they came back to him and he was up and ready to start his day, to be doing anything keep his mind busy. The first things to be done where the morning chores; checking the traps, and collecting water. He had not received any notifications of kills so no luck there but there were probably still some traps that had been disturbed and needed resetting, he was also contemplating if he needed to set out more traps, so gathering his bag, spear and bucket he set out. He was able to gather some more nuts and pods at the axen tree and check the snares even adding some nuts as bait to some, and then it was onwards to the river. He still moved carefully through the woods despite getting a bit more comfortable with the route, his fear wouldn¡¯t let him be anything but careful. He took a drink and a quick wash in the river. A surprise waited as he checked the traps along the river front, having not received any kill notifications he hadn¡¯t expected to find anything, there was something though. It must have worn itself out trying to escape because there was a ball of fur in the middle of an area of devastation; broken branches and leaves, dug up and churned earth. The snare had been attached to the trunk of a tree and had held; whatever it was must have tired itself out because it was curled in a ball seemingly asleep. The creature hadn¡¯t seemed to of noticed Gar at that point so he backed up. His heart was racing here he was again he was going to have to take a risk, his fear was spiking, but also something pushing him forward. Backing up even further Gar decided he needed to think about what he was going to do; he couldn¡¯t rush in and make a foolish mistake that cost him his life. So what did he know; there was a furry creature about the size of a dog resting not far ahead, it was most likely caught in some way in one of the snares. From what Gar could see he had three options, Kill it, leave it, or try to let it go. As bad as he felt for the trapped thing Gar quickly eliminated trying to let it go, it was maximum risk for no reward. Just leaving it would be the safest option in a few days it would die or something else would take it out before then, but he would have to abandon this whole area he couldn¡¯t risk coming back and it having attracted something else or simply managed to break free, besides he didn¡¯t know how long it would take for the thing to die. Killing it now was a medium risk option but the biggest reward, if he killed it he would have meat for at least a few days and the fur as well as anything else that could be made from its body, but to kill it he would have to attack and if he attacked it, it would attack back even if still caught in the snare, not that he knew for certain it was. Gar decided that if he could do it safely he would kill it but if not he would leave it and see what happened. First he gathered a few berries and a bucket of water and took it back to base; leaving everything at base except his spear he headed back to where he had seen the creature. It was in the same place as he had seen it before a ball of fur in a patch of destruction. The major piece of information Gar wanted to know was whether this thing was still trapped here or could run after him, so staying just close enough he could see it clearly with observe on Gar started circling around it away from the river, taking slow steps, careful not to break sticks or otherwise make excess noise. He was about three quarters of the way round the creature before he was able to see what he was hopping for the snare was wrapped around one of its back legs, Gar could see blood from where it had cut into the leg when pulled tight, continuing slowly round Gar was happy it was securely trapped there. So he worked his way back moving at the same slow speed, he didn¡¯t want to attract attention he still didn¡¯t know what was in these woods. He had been thinking as he came back though and by the time he was back where he started he had a plan. He got what he needed for the plan, when he was ready he had a pile of about fifty fist sized rocks next to him as he stood about ten meters from the creature spear in one hand a stone in the other. Taking careful aim he threw the stone at the creature and hit centre mass. The creature woke snapping and snarling of teeth and claws, it turned straight towards Gar who was stood watching but ready to run. It leapt at him but got pulled up by the snare round its leg. Gar had recognised it though it was a badger the distinct black and white markings, the head shape there was no mistaking it. After being pulled up the badger turned and snapped at the snare and its trapped leg. Gar picked up another stone and threw hard; missing the badger completely picking up another Gar threw again and again ¡°New skill acquired throwing level 1¡± He was getting close to the end of his pile of stones before he got the awaited message This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°You have killed a level 4 badger 12 experience awarded¡± Not wanting to spend any more time here Gar quickly freed the dead badger leg gathered up the wire for the snare, nothing else was going to get caught in this patch of destruction, wire in his pocket Gar slung the badger over his shoulders picked up his spear and headed back to base. Ascending the ladder up was tricky he couldn¡¯t hold the badger in place and hold onto the ladder so he ended up dropping a rope down and hoisting the body up. He looked over at his shelter, he had wanted to make a good start on waterproofing it and finishing it off, but he knew this badger was quite a windfall and couldn¡¯t be put off or it would go bad. Gar hung the body by its back legs from one of the trees and then using his knife slit its throat to let it bleed out, a part of Gar disliked wasting anything and wanted to collect the blood in case he found a use for it, he did not have enough containers for it though so just let it run out. While he waited for that he used some of the wood around to build and start a new fire in the pit. When the blood had stopped running Gar started to remove the organs, pulling the muscle and skin away he cut into the front of the body being careful to not go to deep and cut any organs, once the hole was large enough to get his hand inside he was able to push the organs in while pulling the skin and muscle out to get a nice vertical cut from breastbone to anus, from there he was able to remove the organs trying to identify them as they were removed, the only ones he was absolutely confident in where the heart and liver and he put them to one side. This would have been easier if the body hadn¡¯t been swinging around, so to fix that Gar carved two simple wooden pegs and tied them to the front legs before spreading and driving them into the ground. Which gave much less swing, for which Gar was glad as the next step wasn¡¯t easy he started using his sharpest knife his conrex claw one, to skin the badger. Slowly with several slips putting holes in the hide, cutting away until it was removed he had to untie it to completely remove the hide so he did the last of it on the ground. Once he had it removed he laid the pelt out on the ground in the sun fur side down for now, it would need more doing to it but the meat needed dealing with first. Laying the body out on his flat rock he decided it was best to take it apart. First he started by removing a back leg. ¡°New skill acquired butchery level 1¡± After that he started to get a bit more of a feel for what he was doing but he still made lots of mistakes and there was plenty of waste, his butchery skill had improved by the time he was done ¡°Butchery levelled up butchery level 2¡± He had kept one of the back legs whole while the rest of the meat had been removed from the bone and cut into thin strips with all fat removed he had also removed the tongue and eye balls, when he had got to the brain that was going too far for him he already had more meat than he could eat before it went bad but he was still reluctant to waste anything, still the brain was a step to far. Gar filled the larger saucepan with water then he put several of the bones with the most scraps of meat on them, the diced tongue, liver, heart and eyes as well as some cut up axen pods in, before hanging it quite high over the fire. It would slowly boil with the lid on it, he was hoping for something like a stew cooked slowly to soften the tough meat he was using, he had no idea how it would taste but figured it would be edible and different from just roasting it so why not try it, that was going to take a while though so for something a bit sooner Gar raked some coals to one side then placed the frying pan on them, before cutting the meat into chunks off the leg he had kept, and dropping them in the pan it didn¡¯t take long before the scent of frying meat filled his nose. He cooked them until they were well done just in case; normally he would prefer his meat a bit bloody. The meat when eaten was a bit tough with a strong taste very irony and gamey but still pleasant enough to eat, a bit of seasoning would have been nice. Once he had eaten and washed up a bit, Gar got on with sorting the rest of the meat before it went bad. Gar only knew of several methods to preserve meat; freezing, cooling, salting or drying. With no fridge or freezer and no access to ice the first two were out, he had no salt either so that was also out. The only other method was to dry it out but he didn¡¯t really know how to do that but it was the best option he had, so he had cut the meat into thin strips hoping they would dry quickly and evenly, he had also made sure to cut off any fat as he knew that went bad quickly, next he needed a rack to dry them on. First he tried using several sticks with a small Y shape at the top and stabbing them into the ground to stand but he hit rock too quickly and was not able to get them to stand up, so instead he made a couple of A frames making sure the tops overlapped leaving a V to rest a stick in, then taking a sturdy thin straight stick he sharpened one end and started stabbing strips of meat onto the stick and spacing them out along its length. The stick was then secured to the top of the two A frames allowing the whole structure to stand up. Several more sticks of skewered meat where then fastened across the two A frames down each side. By the time all the meat was hanging Gar had three such frames spaced out in the sun. 14: First home Gar looked around at his shelter then at the sky he really wanted to get that finished as soon as possible but he had always been one that if he was going to do a job he would do it properly. So having made up his mind, Gar went to where he had left the hide, he didn¡¯t have the first idea how to prepare the hide and turn it to leather, but he figured he should try his best. He carved a couple more pegs plus the ones he used when skinning and used them to peg the hide down to the ground stretched out, then using the blade of his knife he started scrapping away anything left on the skin, fat, meat, membrane he scraped off. When he was done he unpegged the hide, it now had a few more holes and was quite a mess with blood and oils so Gar figured he would wash it in the river next. Gar was happy with this because with a trip to the river he could also get what he needed for his shelter, mud, two birds with one stone. There were just a few things to do before he was ready to go. First he added a bit more wood to the fire to keep it going then he checked his pot and gave it a stir, it was bubbling away nicely. The next and last task would take a bit longer he needed to make a handle for the shovel, fortunately in his pile of wood Gar was able to find a stick just the right size once he had removed the bark with his knife, he was then able to cut a slot in the end of the stick before sliding it in to the shovel head and tapping a little wooden wedge into the cut slot, holding the head in place. With a functional even if not perfect shovel ready he got his spear and the sled put the hide in his backpack and slung it onto his back. Gar headed to the river, it took a bit of walking up stream to find a good spot but he eventually found some clay mud. Before he got dirty digging in the mud he got into the river up to his knees and started washing the hide, making sure to really scrub it clean before putting it back in his bag. Starting shovelling mud he piled it on his sled, it was a messy sticky process, fortunately it didn¡¯t take too long before it was piled high on the sled, so dragging the sled he proceeded back to base retracing his steps along the river bank then down the same path he always took, knowing it would be quicker to just head in a straight line Gar was tempted in the end though he didn¡¯t the risk of coming across something unexpected or dangerous was too much for him so he stuck to his known route. Gar was unsure how to procced once he returned to the bottom of his ladder, should he dump the mud here and return for more from the river or should he carry this mud up before going back for more from the river. Deciding it would break it up more to take the mud up each time, Gar went up the ladder, laid out the hide in the sun to dry out, tipped what was left of the water in his bucket into the other saucepan, and carried the bucket down, filled it up with mud, brought it up and dumped it on the outside of his shelter. That is how Gar spent the rest of his day; collecting mud from the river bank, hauling it back, bucketing it up the cliff, and spreading it on his shelter. He had ended up using his hands to spread it out evenly so by the time he was ready to call it quits for the day he was covered in mud. He was happy with his progress though he had nearly two thirds of his shelter covered in mud and his hauling skill had levelled up during the day. He headed back to the river one more time to wash up and to clean his bucket; in fact spending longer to make sure his bucket was clean than he did himself, then using it to bring some fresh water back with him. It was now time to eat his pot that had been bubbling away all day. It was not good but it was filling and Gar had had a long day of hard work and would have eaten anything, nothing was wasted. He had never been a fan of organs, they tasted to irony for his pallet but this was worse the strong taste had permeated all of it the liquid and the axen pods, everything had just gone kind of mushy so he couldn¡¯t really tell what it was he was eating but he forced himself to finish it then drinking all the liquid. The worst part had been when he had bitten down on an eye and it popped in his mouth, he wasn¡¯t sure what happened to the other eye but he counted that as a blessing. He chucked the bones from the pot in the pile with the rest, and then he went straight to bed tired from his days work and just wanting to forget his horrible dinner. The next morning Gar was up with the sun again, he still had no appetite after last night so skipped any kind of breakfast and got on with his chores first he checked on his drying meat, it seemed to be doing okay but figured he would let it dry today as well. Then it was off to get water and check the traps, there was no surprises that day so Gar had the traps sorted and was back with the water in short order. Moving the water to the saucepans Gar set off to finish collecting the mud he needed. It was nearly mid-day by the time Gar had his shelter covered in mud, to finish it off he laid the sheets of moss and grass he had put to one side, on top of the shelter, hoping that when it took root it would keep the mud in place even in heavy rain. Gar sat by his fire pit, it was unlit but he had gotten used to sitting around it. He was unsure what to do next he had been keeping himself so busy with his shelter for the last few days so once it was done he wasn¡¯t really sure what he should do next. Since he had got here his goal had been survival; shelter, water, food. His shelter was now complete, the river supplied abundant water and this place seemed to be teaming with life he could eat, both plants and animals. Gar knew he needed to keep himself busy with a goal in mind, or the fear would overtake him or worse the recklessness would and he would get himself killed. So he thought about what he wanted, he had wanted adventure and the chance to explore that was why he said yes to coming here but it hadn¡¯t been anything like he expected. Now all he wanted was peace and safety, so he figured his best bet for that was to find civilization. Okay, so that was his long term goal but that didn¡¯t really help with what he was going to do next, he needed to break it down into steps. In the medium term he needed to get out of this hole he couldn¡¯t go anywhere or find anyone while stuck here. He also needed to be prepared to travel when he did because he had no idea what he would find when he got out. With that in mind Gar could think of three things he needed to do, one explore this hole he had been here for over a week and he had barely seen any of it, it was large and there may be a simple way out he was just yet to see, two he needed to be stronger he needed to train and improve his stats and skills, three he needed knowledge, information was key, he needed to inspect and observe more things, he needed to explore his mana vision and learn all he could. So those where his goals, those where what he would get on with. It wasn¡¯t much of a plan but it was the best he could come up with, so it would have to do. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Mind made up, Gar was getting a bit hungry so ate some of his supply of axen nuts and looked over his status Race: Gargoyle Name: Gar Level: 2 Experience to next level 113/150 Health: 142/142 Stamina: 149/149 Mana: 62/62 Constitution: 12 Endurance: 11 Strength: 14 Agility: 6 Dexterity: 6 Willpower: 8 Wisdom: 6 Intelligence: 6 Charisma: 3 Perception: 8 Luck: 5 Free attribute points: 3 Abilities Racial Personal Skills Free skill points: 1 It was a long list of skills now but none where above level 4 and only one was at that. Also Gar was undecided on if he should use his free skill and attribute point. He had figured out he could gain more physical attribute points through related physical effort and was guessing from that he could raise his mental stats by mental efforts, but what about the more esoteric stats like charisma and luck, was there some way to train them if not should he put his points in them if it was the only way to gain them or maybe they should go into stats that would be immediately helpful in survival, but what stat was that he was in no immediate danger so would it be better to increase intelligence maybe help him think up a solution or maybe more strength that would always be useful. It all came back to one thing a lack of information. 15: Information He had time to fix that; now that he wasn¡¯t struggling to survive he could spend some time on it. He wanted to test if he could gain mental stats as well as physical ones through mental exercise. To do that he needed a mental task and he had the perfect thing in mind. Casting his eyes about he saw a small branch from the tree he had felled laying on the ground not far away from him, he picked it up and activated mana sight. The world shifted and the colours of mana where back, looking at the branch in front of him he could see the mana in it, it was a light green in colour that seemed to make the branch slightly glow. Gar added observe to mana site and everything focused more in his vision. He could see the mana spiralled up the central branch with a small portion splitting off and spiralling down each branch that came of the main branch, spiralling along getting weaker until it just got to the end and ran out. Gar sat following the mana along each branch trying to find were the mana was being used. It was only when he noticed that each and every needle touched the spiral of mana did he realise what was happening. A miniscule amount was being divided into each needle along the branch, in such exact measurements that all of it was used just as it got to the end of that branch ¡°Observe levelled up Observe level 4¡± He hadn¡¯t seen it at first but each needle seemed to hold a tiny store of mana, watching the needles closely Gar realised it wasn¡¯t just the light green colour mana there was another kind as well it was a light yellow almost white colour mana. It was then that Gar realised the branch, despite being separated from the tree, was still alive. It was photosynthesising or do plants still do that in this world, Gar was guessing it was taking in some kind of light mana. Now he knew it was alive he could see more signs of it , the mana in the branch was flowing weakly it seemed to be trying to bring in more mana where it was cut off but it wasn¡¯t doing very well at it. Careful study led Gar to the conclusion that while this branch was alive it was also slowly dying. He was torn between watching it die and understanding what happens and trying to save it to see what changes that makes, a moment of indecision was solved instantly when he looked up and noticed the discarded branches all over the place, he had been so focused on making his shelter he hadn¡¯t been particularly tidy. Deciding to be a bit more scientific with it Gar gathered six similar sized branches which also had a similar strength glow of mana, bringing them all to one side away from the rest of his stuff Gar laid three of the branches out on the ground, the other three got the cut end buried in the soil. They were set with a branch laying on the ground in front of each replanted branch the first pair would be his control so he would do no more to them just observe, the next pair he watered them and planned to continue to do so, the final pair he wanted to add nutrients to the soil so as well as watering he gathered the scraps and entrails from his butchery that where already starting to rot and he added them to the soil at the third pair. With the preparations set Gar spent some time examining the mana flow in each of the branches, it fascinated him. Despite being all from the same tree there was no uniformity across the branches they all had as far as Gar could tell a similar amount of mana but it was more densely packed in some then others, it seemed to flow at varying speeds, the coils of the spiral pattern it made as it moved through the branch where sometimes further apart sometimes closer together, Gar was starting to want some paper and a pen to take notes. He had never been a particularly studious person but this was magic, real magic he wanted to know everything he could about it. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Once he had spent a good deal of time watching the mana flow in the branches Gar started tidying up the area, this was going to be his home for a while so he wanted to keep it nice. The branches were split into several piles near the rest of the trunk, small, medium and large thickness branches he figured he would also continue to strip the needles of the branches leaving just the wood as he had found the needles just caused lots of smoke when added to the fire and where in the way when he wanted to make something. His next job was to gather up all the rotting bits around, scraps of meat and entrails, the squirrel skin he had forgotten about which had started to smell, a number of axen pods that had started to rot. Having gathered them up he was unsure what to do with them, his immediate thought was to bury them but the dirt wasn¡¯t deep enough here on the ledge and he didn¡¯t want to have to climb down to deal with it every time. For now he took them to the furthest corner of the platform and just dumped them off, they hit the ground bellow with a wet splat. Then he came to the bones of the badger they were pretty clean particularly those that he had boiled, so he decided to pile them up to one side figuring many things on earth used to be made from bone so he might find a use for them. The badger fur was a bit more difficult to decide what to do with, the fur wasn¡¯t particularly soft and despite its time laid out in the sun it wasn¡¯t completely dried out and had already developed a bit of a smell. In the end he decided it was worth keeping for now even if only to test ideas for how to do better with any more skins he might get. Thinking with no time like the present Gar started on a new idea for it, if the sun wasn¡¯t going to dry it out enough then he needed another heat source. Fire was out, putting it to close and it was just going to get burned or cooked and that wasn¡¯t what he was looking for, what about the smoke though, it might work, with a hide he was going to have to throw away if he didn¡¯t do anything he decided to try it. First he built a frame to hold the hide stretched out high above the fire well away from the flames but still catch the smoke. Once it was set in place Gar built the fire and let it burn, it wasn¡¯t really making much smoke. In an attempt to produce more smoke and get another job done Gar started stripping branches of their needles and when he had a good bundle, onto the fire they would go as he went back to stripping needles. It was actually a relaxing way to spend the rest of his day, by the end he was just chucking in each handful as he stripped them off just to watch them burn. A dinner of nuts and boiled pods and Gar went to bed. 16: Whats in there? ¡°New stats added to status: + 1 Intelligence, + 1 perception¡± Was the message that greeted Gar as he woke up, he was happy he had proven his theory. He could improve his mental stats through training, as long as it was of the appropriate sort, and as a bonus he had also improved his perception. Which he hadn¡¯t expected although it made some sense, he had spent a lot of time focusing on watching mana flows using all his perception based skills. The day started in his new routine; he checked his snares, nothing new, collected some berry¡¯s nuts and pods, collected water he was getting quite quick and smooth with these daily tasks. He then got the fire going to keep smoking the hide and decided to try some of his dried meat for breakfast, the drying seemed to have worked the meat was tough but did not appear to be rotten, the taste was something edible but not enjoyable he helped improve the flavour by eating it with some pine needle tea. Breakfast finished and tea in hand Gar plucked an old charcoal, from the edge of the fire pit. Taking it to the cliff wall he found an area of relatively flat rock and started drawing, it was a crude map depicting; his little platform, the cliff walls leading away from it on either side, plus his path to the river and where the river disappeared into the cave in the cliff, he also marked the area covered in caves that was not far from the river end. This was his map and from then on he would start to add to it as he explored, he knew about more areas of this cenote on the other side of the river but he wasn¡¯t certain of their position relative to where he was so preferring to keep his map simple and correct only expand it out as he explores rather than adding some areas incorrectly or confusingly. In thinking about exploring, an area that he needed to explore did come to mind, it was not something he wanted to do but with his survival somewhat stable he had no real excuse not to and it was foolish to leave a potential danger unchecked. That was the small cave opening he had found on his platform. Putting a little mark on his map to indicate the cave he chucked the charcoal back in the fire, grabbed his spear carried it over to the pile of rocks he had used to block the small entrance. He got as close to the cliff wall as he could then stopped, listened. He couldn¡¯t hear anything but that did not calm his nerves, laying his spear next to himself within easy reach he started to move away the rocks that had been piled to block the entrance. He didn¡¯t move them far and he frequently stopped to listen, hand on spear, for any sounds coming from inside. It was all still quiet. As soon as he had moved enough stones to show a portion of the opening he jumped back, half expecting something to dart out at him. No such thing happened. He spent a while just watching the opening he had revelled, before getting closer and peering into the cave. His dark vision made it possible to see but his bad angle and reluctance to put his face to near the opening meant he didn¡¯t see much, but with no indication of threats Gar continued clearing the entrance stopping regally; to look and listen. Eventually he got the entrance clear; he crept continuously up to it. Still not seeing or hearing any threats Gar stuck his head inside. There was a short tunnel that curved up so he couldn¡¯t see far it opened up a little once past the entrance but still not enough that Gar could stand. Backing out Gar went and grabbed a knife which he tucked into the waistband, of his rather tatty, trousers. He wasn¡¯t confident in the usefulness of his spear in that tight space so he¡¯d wanted another option to hand. Back to the cave entrance, he went down on his hands and knees, he squeezed himself in, moving slowly and carefully to avoid making too much noise. As he crawled forward shuffling his spear with him, the cave floor was slopping upwards but the roof wasn¡¯t changing so it was getting narrower his back starting to rub against the celling. Gar was starting to feel claustrophobic he hadn¡¯t gone ten meters and he was soon going to have to crawl on his stomach if it got any lower. What would he do if something attacked him then that was no position to fight from? Pushing forward slowly and as quietly as he could, forcing himself to stop thinking about what could happen and paying attention to what was happening. The tunnel suddenly opens out in front of him. He was now in a cavern large enough that his dark vision couldn¡¯t see across it or even to the ceiling. What he could see were large stalagmites and stalactites ranged around the room many of the stalactites dripping water into puddles on the floor. Despite the lack of light this cavern was not desolate of life; there was moss, liken and fungus growing in patches in every direction he looked. There was also large shapes moving around just outside the clear area of site afforded by his dark vision, there even appeared to be some of these moving shapes on the walls. Gar backed up a bit until he was in the tunnel again and out of site of the cavern, those things had been too big to fit down this tunnel whatever they were, so they shouldn¡¯t be a problem but he felt he still needed to know more about them to be safe. He just wanted to run and hide, block off the entrance again and be safe. He knew however that he couldn¡¯t, it would just be a false sense of security, the only thing he could do to be truly safe was to go back in. He needed more information and he could only do that by going back. Steeling himself that is what he did. Gar crawled back in only bringing his spear, moving slowly to minimise any noise he might be making, despite that all too soon he had reached the cavern again. Once there he lay down on his front, spear just to his side so it wasn¡¯t under him but still in easy reach. Once settled he waited just watching the cave, he wanted to crawl out and explore the cavern but he knew there were things moving in there, large things. He felt going out was just to reckless, he just laid there allowing his dark vision to show him the area around him, and he waited patiently. He could feel the cool ground under him and feel the stone around him but it didn¡¯t bother him he wasn¡¯t uncomfortable he didn¡¯t twitch or fidget he just laid there his breathing calm, focusing on the movement he could make out just outside his dark visions range. After an unknown amount of time something started to enter his vision, it was moving next to the wall on Gar¡¯s left near a large patch of something growing, he couldn¡¯t tell exactly what at this distance. The creature was moving slowly for its size and it was only when it had completely made its way into the area of his dark vision that Gar could tell what it was. It was a giant snail and not like the giant snails you can get on earth that might be as big as your foot, the top of this snails shell would reach Gars shoulder and it was at least twice that in length. Size was not the only difference between this snail and the ones on earth, it had a similar coloured shell as garden snails but the body was a dark orange. Gar activated observe and the creature was marked Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. ¡°Cave snail level 5¡± It was a cave snail, that wasn¡¯t too bad snails where slow, it would be of minimal threat to Gar. Gar continued to watch from his little tunnel feeling a bit safer, between the snail¡¯s slow speed and its large size not fitting in his tunnel, it meant it wasn¡¯t a threat to him. He still needed more information so he stayed and watched the snail as it went up and down over the patch of fungus where it was, with observe on he could see as the fungus on the floor wilted as the snail went over it, it wasn¡¯t the weight of the snail, it was its slime trail Gar watched as behind the snail all the fungus the snail had passed over was melting into a runny mush, the snail then went back across its trail bending its head and eating the runny mush it had made. Gar hoped this meant it was a herbivore and wouldn¡¯t be looking to attack him, Gar had no interest in attacking it as the orange colour and the slime made him sure it was poisonous so he couldn¡¯t eat it, so not being edible he saw no reason to take the risk of attacking it. He spent some more time watching the snail finish its meal then slowly made its way out of his area of vision, he kept watching, hours went by and in all that time he only saw one more cave snail as it briefly came into his area of vision to go around a stalagmite. Deciding to call it time Gar slowly crawled backwards out of the tunnel, slightly impressed with how freely his body moved even after laying perfectly still on the cold hard ground for so long. It was much later in the day than Gar had realised when he exited the cave, with how late it was getting being the perfect excuse not to try to explore more Gar started re-covering the entrance to the cave with stones, he knew none of those snails would be fitting down the tunnel to come out this entrance but he had not explored enough to be confident there was nothing else in there that could. Once the cave was again sealed with stones Gar nipped over to his map and marked the tunnel and the opening of the cavern on it. It wasn¡¯t much added but it made Gar smile to be able to add even that little bit, to know just a bit more of this new world. It was too early to be going to bed so Gar decided it was time to get back to another task he had been neglecting. Putting Handles on his tools, the next tool he was going to do would be his pickaxe; he picked a suitable piece of wood from his pile and brought it with him to the fire pit. It was then that he realised that he had forgotten about his badger hide, the fire had gone out hours ago and the hide was hanging there in all its tattered glory, Gar realised it was time to accept defeat with that one. He had no idea what he was doing with it, it smelt and was full of holes; he just hated the idea of wasting anything. Knowing it was a lost cause without the knowledge on what to do with it, Gar was not going to waste any more time on it, he pulled it down from where it hung, walked to his waste disposal area, and chucked the ragged hide off the cliff. Returning and sitting by the fire pit he took the log he had chosen, and with axe, saw and chisel started shaping it into a usable pickaxe handle. He took it slow, working carefully bringing the piece of wood down to size; he was getting more comfortable with the tools now after having used them a few times he progressed well in the couple of hours before dark. When the light was gone he stopped with the handle and it was time for dinner, having spent most of the day just laying still and not moving Gar was not interested in an early night so was going to try some cooking. He built himself a nice campfire before setting a pan full of water over it letting it come up to a boil, scooping up a cup full of boiling water he dropped in some pine needles. Gar was starting to really enjoy his pine needle teas they were a nice and relaxing thing, into the boiling water still in the pan he dropped a couple of the dried badger meat pieces in the hopes they would rehydrate and be a bit easier to eat. He then sat and watched stirring the pan and regularly pulling up the pieces of meat to check on them. When it felt right Gar pulled out the strips of meat onto his clean flat rock ¡°Cooking levelled up cooking level 3¡± Gar hoped that was a good sign and that the food would taste better because of it or at least be easier to eat than the dry stuff he had tried that morning. It certainly was easier to eat but the flavour still left much to be desired, what could he expect his cooking skill was only level 3 and it was just boiled meat no seasonings or sauces. For as bad as it tasted Gar still enjoyed the meal, sipping his tea and a few thorn berries after the meat to finish it. With a belly full but still not tired due to his day of relative inactivity Gar laid back and just stared up into the night sky. It was a sight he had not expected, he thought he would see stars but the numbers of them he could see was immense, he had never seen so many even when he had gone camping on earth the campsite and other people around had led to some light pollution but here he was utterly alone; his fire had burned down to coals, no lights anywhere ruining his view of the night sky and he was seeing just how vast it was. On a whim Gar activated mana sight, then he just stared the sight before him was awesome, not the modern watered down use of awesome but truly awe inspiring, it was like watching the aurora borealis with shifting lights in a multitude of colours and shades all while still being able to see the countless stars and the vastness of space. That night Gar fell asleep watching the sky, he was too entranced to care about his comfort or shelter. 17: Panic and distraction Gar awoke refreshed and ready for the day, he still had visions of what he saw the previous night floating in his head as he started on his daily chores. He watered his branch experiment with what was left of the water in his bucket before getting his bag on his back, setting out with bucket in one hand and spear in the other. Gar still moved cautiously through the forest but much faster than he had at first, repetition was starting to take the edge of his worries. That was until he got to the axen tree. The area under the axen tree was stripped bare, the nuts and pods on the ground where all gone, all of Gar¡¯s snares had been ripped down either the wire snapped or the branches they were attached to broken, looking up into the tree all the pods had been stripped from it as well, there were tracks everywhere and Gar could tell two things from them; first that whatever did this was not human or even humanoid in form, second that there where a whole lot of them. Not sticking around to see anymore Gar turned and fled, caution was no longer a priority he just moved with as much speed as he could, he was back at the ladder in no time and shot up it, only to drop all his stuff and climb down again. He was only down long enough to pull up the pegs securing his ladder, and then up it again pulling the ladder up as well when he got to the top. Gar pretty much collapsed to the ground breathing heavily from his short flight from the scene, he could feel the panic rising in him. He did not want anything to do with whatever had cleared the area. He would be staying at his base for the foreseeable future. His heart still racing and his breathing heavy even after several minutes on the ground Gar knew it was no longer from the run but from the panic he felt. Knowing that he could not let the panic take over or he would shut down in fear, Gar looked around for a distraction something to do without having to go anywhere and he found what seemed like the perfect thing. His plant mana experiment, exploring mana and magic was one of the truly good things from coming to this world. He practically ran over to his little branch experiment set up, mana sight active before he even got there. He stood in front of the six branches and stared at them not really taking them in, just staring their mere presence and what they represented for him being enough to stop him spiralling deeper and deeper into panic. As his breathing calmed he started to take more of it in. First his control pair the stick laying on the ground wasn¡¯t doing good, to normal vision it didn¡¯t look to bad but his mana sight was telling him a completely different story, there was barely any of the light green mana left in the stick none flowing in the branch just tiny pockets of it in the needles Gar lightly brushed his hand along it, any needles he touched that had no mana left in it fell off in his hand this branch wasn¡¯t quite but soon would be dead. The other control branch, the one stood in the shallow soil, was doing better all the leaves had mana in and none fell off at his touch, there was however only the faintest wisp of mana running up the wood of the branch. While it was undoubtedly doing better than the other control branch this one was also dying , it was getting a trickle of this light green mana and that was keeping it going but it wasn¡¯t enough, Gar suspected that in a few more days it would be in the same position as the first one. The next pair of branches where the ones that he had been watering, comparing the one laying on the ground with the control that was also on the ground Gar noticed that the watered branches needles where a more vibrant colour than the controls but the mana in it was much the same, when touched the needles without mana fell off except he did notice a few that stayed attached. This branch was doing better than the control but not by much. This was all important information for Gar, it showed that the normal things where still needed by the plant and did help it but it also needed mana. He didn¡¯t know what use this information would do him but it was all more information than he had previously so he was glad to have it. The planted branch that had been watered was a bit of a surprise it was doing much better than all the ones he had looked at so far, Gar could tell there was certainly less mana than when he had looked at it the other day but he couldn¡¯t say with any certainty that this branch was going to die. The branch and needles looked vibrant and healthy, the mana in it was a little dim but nowhere near running out, surly simply watering it couldn¡¯t make that much difference? Gar knew he had to be missing something. He would continue to observe it and try to figure it out. The final pair, which he had watered and added the rotting scraps to, looked the most different. The stick lying on the floor was dead, the needle¡¯s had shrivelled and gone brown, it was filled with mana but not the normal light green or even the yellow he had seen glimpses of this was a grey mana and it was stationary just sitting in the branch, looking at the pile of rot at its base there was also this grey mana in there, Gar wasn¡¯t sure what this grey mana was but suspected it is what killed the branch. He figured that the branch in searching for mana had drawn any it could get into itself. In stark contrast the branch standing with the rotting scraps mixed in with the soil at its base looked the healthiest out of the lot there was a strong flow of the light green mana in it, the needles looked vibrant and green the branch was healthy and strong when touched. No sign of the grey mana in it despite using the same rotting stuff as fertiliser, looking at the soil where he had mixed in the rot he saw why. There was grey mana but as soon as he noticed it appearing it seemed to sink in and spread out in the soil until he couldn¡¯t see it anymore and even more impressive as it spread more of the light green mana seemed to come towards the base of the branch, looking closely at the base of the branch Gar could see little veins of green mana that he suspected where the start of root growth. It was fascinating the same stuff that killed one branch seemed to be helping the other thrive it was truly fascinating to Gar. He spent some time just going back and forth looking at each of the different branches making note of their appearance and any changes, he was really wishing for some paper and a pen before he was done. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. After a while an idea struck him, these plants have mana in them he can see, so did the conrex, that was how he found them and he knew he had a mana pool so presumably he had mana in him. Could he view his own mana? Once he had that thought it grabbed onto him like an eagle with a fish. If he could see his mana perhaps he could move it and if he could move it then perhaps he could do more with it. With that new line of thought Gar moved his attention away from the branches and onto himself. He started by looking at his hands trying to make out any mana in them but he could see none, not to be dissuaded Gar looked from his arms to his chest, where he felt his mana pool was. Still he saw no colours, no sign of any mana in him at all. That had to be wrong he had a mana pool and he knew it was full of mana, he stared at himself trying to look deeper, willing himself to see his mana. When all of a sudden it happened, his vision sort of flipped and inverted and he was looking inside himself, not physically but in the mana spectrum. Before him he saw a bean shaped organ glowing with mana, it was dense with a rich royal purple coloured mana. As he watched he realised it was moving inside his, he was unsure what to call this mana organ thing but settled on referring to it as his mana core or core for short, inside his core mana was moving seemingly all on its own, or so he it seemed until he saw the mana leaving a hole in his core. He followed it with his sense seeming to float along behind it as the mana flowed out of his core, it then immediately spread round the outside of his core before traveling outward in a myriad of directions all at once. He watched and followed the mana flow for ages forming a map of its route in his head, it was complex and convoluted seeming to cross over and double back on itself, it got thinner and thicker seemingly randomly while branching off and coming back together all over the place. He knew he was not able to remember all of it or really even much of the mana¡¯s path but he was able to keep enough of the overall picture to realise the mana was flowing all throughout his body. He had seen a picture of a human¡¯s arteries and veins mapped over a body once and the path of his mana through his body was many times more complex than that. Eventually the mana no matter what route it took was brought back to the outside layer of his core where it again spread out over the core, but not mixing with the mana that was leaving, returning into the core through a different hole than the one it had left. It was fascinating, Gar watched wanting to understand more, he did not understand why or how the mana was flowing; the core did not pump or move in any way that would cause the mana to move the mana just moved it was as if it had a will of its own. Then he realised what if it¡¯s not a will of its own but his will or more specifically his willpower stat that was keeping his mana moving without his conscious thought just like how the brain kept the heart pumping blood even when you weren¡¯t thinking about it. He suspected that was the case but had no proof so would need to remember to keep objective and follow the evidence where it proved not just force any evidence he got to fit his theory. Gar stopped himself from focusing on possibility¡¯s and maybes returning his attention to his mana core. He had found it; the next step was to control it in some way. He stared at the mana in his core trying to work out how to move it. He was seeing inside himself he couldn¡¯t use his hands to move it so it would have to be his mind, without further ado he started picturing what he wanted the mana to do, nothing to complicated, simply to swirl in a clockwise fashion. Gar pictured what he wanted to happen until his head hurt and he seemed to ¡°pop¡± out of his internal mana vision, blinded by the bright light of the sun in contrast to the mana glow of his internal world. Gar knew it was probably time to take a break but he wasn¡¯t ready to stop yet. That time it was nowhere near as difficult to flip his vision back into that internal view, taking a different approach this time he focused on sending his instructions to the mana enforcing his will upon it, he knew he would get it to obey him it would start to swirl. Nothing happened at first but Gar was patient he kept his mind focused on what he wanted to happen. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was really there when he first noticed it or if he had imagined it, he kept focused and it wasn¡¯t much longer before he noticed it again. Focusing in that particular spot he kept watch until he saw it happening, the mana was starting to swirl, not a lot of it just a little bit but it was defiantly moving in a way that it wasn¡¯t before. His excitement got the better of him and he lost his focus the slight patch of swirling mana returned to the unintelligible flow of the rest of the mana in his core. Not easily put off and knowing this was his first step to performing magic, actual magic, he jumped straight back into trying. He spent several more hours working on moving the mana, he could swirl a small patch clockwise and anticlockwise and even change the direction when he was brought out of his practice by a feeling of weariness, he let go of his focus and he returned his vision to normal. Only to have notifications immediately pop up ¡°New skill acquired mana control level 1¡± ¡°Mana control levelled up mana control level 2¡± ¡°Mana control levelled up mana control level 3¡± Blinking away the messages Gar went to stand only to get a head rush and sit back down again. It was only then sat on the ground that he realised it was night; he had been practicing for pretty much the whole day. That was when he realised what his problem was between the disturbance at the axen tree freaking him out and his need for distraction, then his wonder at what he found causing him to throw himself into his mana work. Gar hadn¡¯t eaten or drank anything all day. To rectify this he got to his feet, slowly this time, no head rush, then he made his way across to near the fire pit where he stored his food , having not made it to the river that morning he had no water so he decided the dried meat was probably not a good idea. Leaving that in favour of some of the thorn berries in hopes that the juice would help with his thirst, he didn¡¯t feel like starting a fire so just sat there eating some axen nuts and finishing off his supply of thorn berries. Not wanting to think about what he was going to do the next day Gar finished his meal and went to bed. 18: Work to adventure ¡°New stats added to status; +1 willpower, +1 wisdom¡± A welcome message to wake up too, Gar still couldn¡¯t help feeling a little disappointed he felt he should have gotten at least a point in perception for all his work the previous day but he was grateful for what he got, so he didn¡¯t complain too much. He got his stuff together on autopilot it seemed he had gotten used to his life and his new morning chores to the point he didn¡¯t even think about it anymore. That all stopped when he was stood at the edge of the plateau by his rolled up ladder. He had known this was coming but hadn¡¯t wanted to think about it, had hoped that by just doing things without thinking he would just get it done. No such luck the fear that had been building since he had woken up, increasing as he got closer to that point. The some fear he had felt the previous day that had sent him running back to his base. As he stood looking down he felt a twinge of phantom pain running from his shoulder and down his back, it threatened to paralyse him with fear. Gar knew he needed water, and knew he would need to get more food at some point he couldn¡¯t just stay on this ledge forever, humans could go three days without water, he didn¡¯t know what it was for gargoyles but figured it couldn¡¯t be much different and in that time he would only get weaker and weaker, it was better to go than to wait until he was to weak. Despite knowing that Gar still just stood there staring into the woods bellow. Stood there he admitted something to himself, this world terrified him but even so he had decided he would fight to live and to do that he needed water. With no further thought he kicked the ladder over the edge and climbed down, once at the bottom he stopped, looked around and listened. There was nothing standing out, he may have decided he needed to do this but he was going to be as careful and cautious as possible when doing so, he moved slowly stepping round fallen branches and dry leaves trying to make as little noise as possible. Stopping frequently whenever he heard any suspicious noises or when anything caught his eye, still there were no signs of anything out of the ordinary. When he got to the axen tree he thought about stopping to investigate, there was as much devastation and destruction as he had seen previously and no nuts or pods to gather so thinking better of hanging around he just kept going. His slow pace wouldn¡¯t give it away but he just wanted to get some water and get back as quick as possible. He kept up his slow and cautious pace all the way to the river where he spent several minutes checking the coast was clear, hid in the last of the tree line before dashing out and into the river. He stood ankle deep in the water, filled his bucket up took a look around, tipped it back and took a long deep drink from it before filling it again, with his thirst eased he made his way back to base with the same cautious movement he had used on the way there. The trip was slow but uneventful he got back to the base of the cliff to find he had forgotten to fix down the base of the ladder he had to climb up grab the pegs he had been using, then come back down again to fix the ladder in place before he could climb up with his bucket of fresh water, with one successful trip done and as much as he didn¡¯t want to leave again Gar used the bucket to fill the saucepans then made a second trip, that went much the same as the first to refill the bucket. Gar started a fire, despite having a big drink each time he visited the river he was still thirsty, so he was going to make some pine needle tea, not wanting to boil all the water in the saucepan Gar scooped some out in his metal cup and set it on the stones around the fire, it would take a while to boil. While he waited he ate some dry meat and planned his day, he wanted to get back to mana control training but he disliked his situation the previous day where he had no water, so a water store was something he needed so that would be todays task. First though Gar was going to sit and enjoy some food and tea. Once his breakfast was finished Gar gathered his chisels and knives and tested there edge, he found some of them lacking so with his whetstone he honed their edge and sharpened them. ¡°New skill acquired sharpening level 1¡± With his tools sharp he went to the remnants of the tree he had felled, there was still a relatively large length of the trunk unused; using his saw he cut a meter long section of the trunk off. The trunk was thinner here than it had been at the base but was still about two thirds of a meter thick, standing it on one end and working from the top he used the chisels to start carving away at the centre of the piece with the aim to leave himself a nice hollow barrel to store water in. It was going well with the carving by mid-day he was about halfway down his section of trunk, it was getting harder to work though as he got deeper ¡°Woodworking levelled up wood working level 2¡± ¡°New subskill acquired carving level1 subskill of wood working¡± That was a new message, subskill, that was interesting Gar guessed that they were sets of skills all related to the skill they were sub of, interesting he wondered what other sub skills he might find. Either way his hands where sore and he was hungry so he took a break for some lunch, it was just a simple meal of the last of the axen pods boiled and some nuts, Gar knew he should get back to his log barrel it was of high priority but his hands hurt and his arms ached, and there was something he wanted to be doing instead. Exploring magic it had captivated him since he first found out it was real and the opportunity to use it himself was something he was unwilling to give up on. He put off finishing his barrel and dived back into playing, training, mana control. With little effort he activated mana vision and flipped his vision to see his mana core, it sat much the same as the previous day, despite staring at it for most of a day it still fascinated Gar. It was his key to unlocking magic of his own. He started where he left off the previous day, getting the mana to swirl, it took a bit of time but he got back to where he could swirl a little as he wished. He was unsure about the next step he should take. Should he try to get more of the mana to swirl at once or should he try to get a small bit to move further? What decided it for him was the flow of mana round his body, he didn¡¯t know how it did it or why but he didn¡¯t want to mess it up and if he took control of most or all the mana in his core then it might stop or mess up the flow, and he did not want to find out what that did. So it was safer to stick with moving a small bit he was just going to move it further, with that in mind his first goal was getting it out of the core. He managed it sometime late in the afternoon but the mana wanted to immediately spread out around the core he was just starting to be able to keep control of it when he called it a night. He had said one more try to himself over a dozen times at that point and it had long since become night. Not bothering to cook he ate some dried meat before heading to bed. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. His next few days where a repetition of that, he would work on his water store in the morning and his mana control in the afternoon eating through his supply of dried meat and a few remaining axen nuts. Those days had been good for Gar a bit of routine, and work to keep his hands and mind busy, he also saw his skills rise ¡°Woodworking levelled up woodworking level 3¡± ¡°Woodworking levelled up woodworking level 4¡± ¡°Subskill carving levelled up carving level 2¡± ¡°Subskill carving levelled up carving level 3¡± ¡°Mana control levelled up mana control level 4¡± ¡°Mana control levelled up mana control level 5¡± ¡°Mana control levelled up mana control level 6¡± He also had a new log barrel with a cut disc of trunk as a lid, and his new mana control allowed him to do much more. He could move a bit of mana anywhere around his internal channels bringing it to any part of his body or even forming a bubble of it on the tip of his finger, the only problem he was having was the mana seemed to be sticky or like a string. He would move only a small bit of the mana from his core and it brought mana along behind it, when he brought mana to the tip of his finger it had a string of mana from the ball on his finger running all the way back into his core, this didn¡¯t seem to do anything but it just wasn¡¯t what Gar was trying to do so it annoyed him. Even so he was immensely happy with his progress; he just needed to work out how to use what he had learned to cast some actual spells. However with his water barrel finished the previous day it was time to fill it up. Having seen no more signs of disturbance Gar was starting to gain some confidence back in the trip to the river he was now walking normally not the slow stop start he had been doing, he still kept his head on a swivel always looking around ready for any sign of danger but he came across none. That day Gar did ten trips to the river to collect water and he hadn¡¯t even half-filled his new water store, it was taking too much time, he had plans for the day. He left it at that there was plenty of water in his barrel for several days at least so he could get on with something else. That something else was exploring, he would have much rather just stayed at his base and worked on mana control but if he ever wanted to get out of this hole and too civilisation he needed to explore more, for all he knew there where stairs out not far away he just hadn¡¯t found them. The other reason he needed to explore was that his food was going to run out, he had a fair bit of meat left but it wouldn¡¯t last forever and with the axen tree picked clean one of his sources of food was gone he needed to find more. So that was what he was doing that day. Before that was breakfast, a big meal of dried meat and as much water as he could drink. It was then onto packing, it wasn¡¯t going to be a long trip but he still would need some supplies, so his backpack was filled with; a knife, thread, rope, some dried meat to snack on, his burlap sacks in case he found anything, and the rest of his wire in case he found a place to lay some more snares as his current locations where showing no more luck. Bag packed he put it on his back and picked up his spear it was time to start exploring, Gar felt a bit of a thrill and a rise of the risk taking impulse but it was quickly squashed by the all-pervasive fear that had settled in him he was only exploring because it would be more dangerous in the long run not to. His aim for the day was to explore the woods at the base of his platform, he knew it was only about a kilometre in length and was wide enough to fill most of the space between the cliff face and the river. At the bottom of the ladder Gar started walking in an upstream direction following the cliff wall, he was going to follow the cliff wall until he got to the end of the forest before coming back the other way zigzagging between the wall and the river, that way he might not see it all but would see a large part of the forest and get to know a bit more about what is in it. Gar walked at a gentle pace as he followed the cliff round, he had observe active and was keeping an eye on the tree line to his left , he had several meters of clear space between the cliff and the tree line, it was rocky with a few stones presumably from the crumbling cliff face. As well as looking out for danger Gar was watching for anything that might be useful, in particular he was hoping to find another axen tree, the one he had found had been a good source of food until it was picked clean, and nuts lasted a long time so would be good for storing. He didn¡¯t know how long he would be there. 19: Vines Gar wasn¡¯t sure exactly how far he had gone before he reached the edge of the forest but it must have been over a kilometre he guessed he had misjudged the size of the thing. He turned towards where he knew the river to be, between the rise and fall of the land and the end of the forest not being a perfectly straight line the river was out of sight, it was a quiet and peaceful day no sound but the wind in the trees and the rustle of small animals in the bushes. Where the trees had ended wasn¡¯t just open space it was covered in bushes, ferns and nettles. The sight of the nettles made him unreasonably happy he had found another source of food, he¡¯d had nettle soup before even made his own once, and he knew the stems fibres could be used to make cord or thread, but wasn¡¯t so sure about how you did that. Either way he decided it was worth taking some with him. Using his spear as a gardening tool he was able to quickly cut a number of long nettles until he had a good bundle, they were then gingerly stuffed into a sack before going into the backpack. Gar found it easier to walk across to the river just under the tree line as there was a lot less growth in the way than the bushes, ferns and nettles and other foliage he couldn¡¯t identify growing out from under the trees canopy, there were still areas where he had to push through but he preferred to go round if it wouldn¡¯t take him too far of course, as he still only had a pair of trousers on and they were already tatty and ripped at that, so wherever he could he preferred not to get scratched and whipped trying to push through plants in his way. He made his way across to the river, and then turned aligning himself towards the cliff but slightly back towards base as well and set off. He had repeated this a couple of times before he found anything of interest to him, it was as he was walking past a few trees that were closer together and he put his hand out against one of them, it gave way to his hand swinging. What he had thought was a twisted trunk or ivy round a tree, where actually a number of flexible vines hanging down from the tree on his other side. He didn¡¯t know what they were but decided to take a closer look at them, he pulled the knife out of the bag on his back then reached for one of the vines. It was about three centimetres thick, he started pulling it up to find the end only to realise it trailed along the floor a ways, finding the end he cut a section off the tip, only for a thick sticky liquid to run out, it smelled sweet and Gar was almost instantly tempted to lick it up fortunately caution won out and he resisted. Looking at the vine section itself it was essentially a tube made of lots of long fibres, just running his thumb over the outside and the fibres started to come away and he could peel them off, he was already having ideas about things he could do with that. It was enough for him to want to take some with him. He took hold of a bundle of vines and gave a hard pull, intending to pull them down, there was no movement they did not fall. Thinking he might be able to snap it off if he did less at a time Gar took hold of one vine and pulled hard, still nothing. He could just cut down the bits that he could reach but Gar wanted as long a piece as he could get. Thinking it was worth it he decided he was going to have to climb up. He put his bag down at the base of the tree and just took his knife with him, it was one of the large knives he had and he ended up tucking it into his waistband, he needed to sort some sort of sheath and carrying strap for it. Sticking toes and fingers into the wood of the trunk he started to climb, as he got higher he noticed more of the vines stretching across branches to hang down in other places and from other trees, but it all lead back to one big cluster that was hanging high up suspended between several large trees. It had found one of the few gaps in the canopy so it could hang in the sun. Gar made his way closer to it, he could see it had a green fleshy lump with a sack hanging under it the top open, it was giving of a sweet smell similar to the stuff in the vines but not quite the same there was something different about it. He was still tempted to try and taste it though, it also had a number of thicker vines with long thorns on them some being used to hold it up from the surrounding trees some curled up near the lump almost looking to hide or defend it. Whatever this thing was Gar wanted a closer look at it and he couldn¡¯t do that while it was hanging there, in realising that he turned his mind to how to get it down. There were fourteen of the thicker vines attaching the plant to three of the surrounding trees at varying different heights. Gar mapped out what he needed to do in his head, to get it down he wouldn¡¯t have to cut all of the vines holding it up if he could just find enough of the right ones gravity would do the rest of the work for him. Gar found nine of the fourteen vines that he believed if cut would drop the plant to the floor, three on the tree he was in then two and four on the other two trees respectively, the vines he wouldn¡¯t be cutting were all thinner or attached to smaller branches of the trees and he hoped by leaving them they would all snap together when they had to take the weight but would stop the plant swinging and getting tangled before he was ready to drop it. He worked his way to the closest vine on the tree he was in, crawling out along the branch it was holding on to, the vine was as thick as his wrist with thick barbed thorns sticking out of it. He pulled his knife out of his waistband raised it high and chopped down, this vine was much tougher than the one he had cut earlier, he had expected to go all the way through with the single swing but it took two more chops before the vine was severed, the sticky sweet sap spraying everywhere as it did so. He watched the central part swing a bit with the vine cut, his hands where sticky as he moved towards the next vine, he ignored it for now as he was likely to get covered in more before he was done. The other two vines on that tree went much the same several chops and the central mass was sent swinging and moving. A quick climb down and then Gar was climbing up the next tree with four vines to cut, he was up the tree and crawling along the branches to his targets in no time. With the extra swing from four more vines that anchored it in place being severed it started to look like the curled vines round the central lump where flailing, it was while watching the plant flail that he got his first clear view of the central growth and observe put a message over it. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Slumbering vine level 4¡± This thing wasn¡¯t just a plant it was a monster, those vines really were flailing about moving on their own. Watching them he could see they were moving it wasn¡¯t fast but they were moving each independently in different directions and not with the swing of the plant. Gar felt both the excitement of a fight and risk pushing him forwards and the fear holding him back the moment he knew it was a monster. What was he going to do? He stood on a branch near the trunk. He felt relatively safe with the four he had planned to cut on this tree gone there was only one vine left attached to it that was much higher up on a thinner branch, there were some of the thinner vines without thorns draped across the tree but even those where a way away from him and he hadn¡¯t seen any of them move yet, so much so that he suspected they couldn¡¯t. He felt somewhat safe where he was, evaluating what he knew. The body of this monster could be useful to him, it seemed to be slow moving and also not able to see, all good things. It was however still a monster at double his level he did not know the extent of its ability¡¯s and it was so different from anything on earth he couldn¡¯t even guess, there would be the added benefit of the experience if he killed it, levelling up might not be his priority but it could only help his survival. Gar made up his mind to continue with his plan and decide what next once he had dropped the thing to the ground, he only had two more on the final tree to cut before he thought it should drop. He climbed down from his spot in the tree and cautiously took a wide circle round to the other tree, he didn¡¯t think the plant could see or hear but didn¡¯t know if it had any other way of sensing him, so figured caution was the best tactic. He made it to the tree with the plant showing no sign of sensing him it had taken some time as he avoided all vines, both hanging and trailing along the ground. Again the climb was the easy part and he slowly shuffled along the branch before getting to the vine, he moved extremely slowly waiting for any change or reaction from the slumbering vine, when nothing happened he brought the knife down once, twice, three times, hard in rapid succession. The vine fell and the body swung dropping lower as the remaining branches holding it up bent. It was only when he saw one of the flailing vines getting close to another tree did he realise what it was doing it was trying to find somewhere else to anchor itself, he did not want that or he could end up back where he started. Time was of the essence so he sped up a quick crawl back to the trunk, a short climb to another branch, a crawl across it no slow movements or hanging around, a few rapid chops with the knife and the vine severed, the plant dropped again before stopping and for a moment Gar thought he hadn¡¯t done enough but then he heard a branch snap from the tree he was in and it fell past him vine still attached, he heard several more loud cracks seeming like gunshots in the quiet forest and the slumbering vine began to fall. It plummeted to the ground swinging slightly as the trailing thin vines snagged before pulling free, it hit with a slap and skidded a little before coming to a stop. It wasn¡¯t dead Gar hadn¡¯t received a kill notification, it had used a number of the curled thicker vines to cushion its fall breaking them under it. Gar didn¡¯t know how smart this thing was and whether that was intended or just an accident, either way it had probably saved the things life, several of the thorny vines where even now starting to move about as he stood and watched it, with a number of the vines it could move broken and it now moving slower than before and it had never been moving particularly fast, Gar was confident he could defeat it without getting seriously injured. He climbed down from the tree then started approaching the central mass of the slumbering vine working his way round so he wasn¡¯t facing the sack that sweet but different smell was coming from, he wanted to keep that whole if he could. Instead he faced the green growth of plant matter figuring that was the most obvious central area, as he approached there were two vines flailing about in the direction he was coming from but it seemed rather slow and laboured movement to Gar. He had picked up his spear on his way to this point and held it up in front of him looking for an opportunity to move forward and stab the central mass, then it came the two vines moved in opposite directions away from each other he waited a couple of seconds more for the gap to widen then darted in leading with the spear. He had waited too long as he moved in the vine on his left came back towards him, it hit his left arm with a lot more force than he thought it should, he was scratched by several thorns and a couple of the barbed ends snapped off in his arm. Already committed Gar stumbled and half lunged half fell at the central mass, the tip of his spear pierced the flesh just as the end of the vine that hit him came back and whipped across his side, already off balance he fell bringing his spear with him dragging a big cut through the plant as he went, he was feeling light headed and his left side was numb but as he lay on the ground he watched as the plants movements slowed and then stop, until he got a notification ¡°You have killed a level 4 slumbering vine 21 experience awarded¡± 20: Its a drag Gar dragged himself up staggered away from the body and collapsed down against a tree. Despite the blow and the scratches he took Gar wasn¡¯t feeling much pain, just a little numb really and a bit fuzzy headed. When he was sat and still he noticed a new icon in his vision a green tear drop shape in a black circle. Selecting it, it opened a new notification ¡°You have been poisoned slumbering vine sap 3:47 remaining¡± It took him a moment to understand the notification and as he watched the number went down with the seconds, with only slightly over three minutes left and an addled head Gar decided to just sit there and wait. He knew as soon as the poison was gone because the pain was back and less obviously his head cleared, with the hint from its name and what he experienced he guessed the sap was some kind of anaesthetic and sedative if he had been scratched a few more times or eaten some of it, he probably would of passed out, with his mind clearer he started having a look at his wounds, his side didn¡¯t seem too bad he had a couple of scratches but they already seemed to have stopped bleeding, his arm was a bit worse there were a couple of large scratches where the barbed thorns had caught in then been ripped out, there was also a couple of barbed tips still caught in the arm. The barbed thorns needed to come out, but they had snapped off under the skin, he gritted his teeth and started working the sharp tip of his index finger into the first scratch with a thorn in it, it was not a pleasant experience for Gar for the next few minutes but he got all the thorns out of his arm, his arm was bloody but had mostly stopped bleeding other than the last scratch he had been poking about in. Even though he was done dealing with his wounds he spent some more time just sat there letting his heartbeat return to normal after the fight, he pulled out some dried meat from his bag to snack on, more as an excuse to stay sitting for a bit longer rather than because he was hungry. Gar had originally just wanted a few vines to take with him, now however he wanted to take the whole thing, needing to see what that entailed he started grabbing small bundles of the thin vines and hauling them in coiling them up on the ground at his feet as he did so, each Vine was between thirty to fifty meters long and he had collected thirty seven of them. So once all bundled up it was a large pile, fortunately he had only needed to climb up and free a couple of particularly stubborn vines to get them all back, most moved with a pull. Looking at the pile he knew he wasn¡¯t going to be able to carry it all, that however was a problem he had already solved so he started building a large sled, it was larger than the first sled he had made but also better quality, his meagre skills still showing through. Putting the main body of the plant onto the sled he then tied the vines into bundles and the bundles together so they wouldn¡¯t fall off the sled, the final thing he did was to collect the larger pieces of broken thorny vine, where the plant had landed on them, and put them on top of the pile on the sled. He headed back towards the cliff face because it would be easier to pull the sled along the clearer area at its base. He could move the sled but it was hard work, he could see his stamina dropping with every step but he was determined, he had fought and bled, he was going to keep his prize. He got to the cliff wall and was ready for a break, he practically collapsed down against the cliff as he dropped the sled, his stamina wasn¡¯t empty but it was low. He hoped for an easier journey now that he was out from the trees, before setting of again he grabbed some old sticks from the forest and made a large arrow on the ground pointing into the woods to mark where he had got to in exploring. In some ways he got what he hoped for, he stopped thinking and focused on one foot in front of the other, he stopped whenever his stamina reached twenty-five percent until it was full then kept walking all the way back to the base of the ladder. His hauling had gone up twice on the journey ¡°Hauling levelled up hauling level 4¡± ¡°Hauling levelled up hauling level 5¡± Gar was weary with tiredness it seemed emptying and letting your stamina refill so many times took it out of you. Gar took a few of the broken pieces up the ladder, dropped his bag, before grabbing his cup and taking a drink from his barrel, then another, he needed to work out a way to bring water with him. Tired he still had a job to do before he could stop; he climbed back down the ladder with a rope. The rope was tied round the body of the slumbering vine, all the vines where untied from each other and there bundles to let them hang. Up the ladder he went rope in hand, round the tree then he started pulling hoisting the body off the plant up to his ledge, the body was rolled over the lip onto the edge then pulled up a bit more, next handfuls of vines where carefully hauled up and coiled. Gar had intended to do more, possibly even go back and continue exploring but with how tired he was that wasn¡¯t going to happen so instead he sat as he drank all the water he wanted and ate dried meat it was still light when he turned in for the night. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°New stats added to status +1 endurance¡± Gar was always happy to start his day with new stat points, as he crawled out of his shelter he was reminded of his exploits the previous day when he saw the slumbering vine, and it just made him feel tired and wanting to go to bed, he was up now though so he would stay up, he had to finish exploring the woods. For once he didn¡¯t need to collect water so he could start the day off a bit slower, it was a refreshing change of pace, he still needed to check his snares by the river but figured as he hadn¡¯t gotten any kill notifications there was no rush and he would check them that evening instead. He started his morning with something he hadn¡¯t been doing enough lately, a wash with a bucket full of water out of his log barrel, he stripped of his trousers and gave himself a full wash, he missed having soap, at least he was able to get off the blood and the sticky sap from yesterday as he stood there wet and naked he looked at his trousers they were the only pair he had and they were a mess he had been wearing them pretty much all the time since he got here, the first step was to wash them so with another bucket of water he started scrubbing, the water was brown in moments and had to be replaced with a fresh bucket, once he had them as good as he was going to get. He was now damp and his only trousers were soaking wet, while he was confident there was no one else here he was not going to go exploring the forest naked. So he built himself a fire. ¡°Fire starting levelled up fire starting level 3¡± A pleasant surprise if not an inevitable one he was lighting fires nearly daily. With his trousers laid out on a rock near the fire Gar gathered his backpack from where he had dropped it he pulled out the sack with the nettles. When he had eaten nettles before he had only collected the fresh growth and new leaves at the top of the stems and left the rest because they were the best tasting bits but it took a lot longer to collect a decent amount and he wasn¡¯t in a situation to be fussy. He started stripping the fresh growth and all the leaves from the stem and dropping them into a pan, he worked methodically and despite his best efforts he still got stung a few times but by the last couple of stalks he had got the hang of it and moved through them without any more accidents, he washed the picked leaves with water drained that away before refilling the pan with water and hanging the whole lot over the fire to boil. He didn¡¯t really know what to do with the stalks particularly as he was hoping the vines would be a much better source of fibres for cordage. Still he had space to keep them around so he laid them out in the sun to let them dry. By that point his trousers where mostly dry, but he still had some repairs to do before putting them on. The worst area was the bottom of one leg that was in tatters full of rips and holes. Gar took his knife and made a nice straight cut across the leg just above the worst of it, he then rolled the new edge up a little to stop it fraying and started sewing with a needle and thread, before doing his best to sew up each of the rips. Once finished he had a repaired pair of trousers one leg longer than the other and a new skill to show for it ¡°New skill acquired sewing level 1¡± Gar slid on his trousers happy to be wearing something again even if he was alone, he checked the pan and it was boiling away the leaves wilted, figuring it was ready to eat, he took the pot off from over the fire and set it down to start eating the nettles. It was quite nice to be eating something different after days of the same food, he got about halfway through them before he had had enough and with nothing else pressing to do he put out the fire grabbed his bag and spear, to head back to exploring the forest. He had worried his arrow had been disturbed overnight but he found it easily enough and continued his zigzag exploration of the forest back towards base. The first site of interest he came across that day was an axen tree laden with pods, he made sure to fill a sack with them because he was still quite far from base. He needn¡¯t have worried about filling up on the pods so early as he was finding axen trees more and more regally as he walked it seemed they were quite common in this forest which was a relief as they were a good source of food and the nuts would last a long time without needing preserving, he did his best to make a mental map of where the axen trees were to make it easier to find them again later. 21: The Haul Hours later he was sat on the riverbank with his feet in the water taking a break, he had gotten used to walking around with no shoes on, and it wasn¡¯t bad the skin on his feet seemed tough and resistant to most things he stepped on. However he had learnt that it was the squishing of things and squelching between his toes that was the true downside of bare foot, he had been nearing the river and a fallen tree was blocking his path as he hopped over his foot had went through a particularly rotten part and he had squashed a massive grub ¡°You have killed a level 1 rot grub 1 experience awarded¡± The thing basically popped as his foot touched it and his foot was left in a puddle of unthinkable squishy mess, which is what led to him sitting with his feet in the water. He had long since scrubbed his foot clean of the mess but was trying to let his body relax and let his mind forget the disgusting sensations. As he sat and watched the sun reflect of the water he was noticing occasional splashes and shimmers of light, there where fish grabbing insects off the surface, it gave him an idea he hadn¡¯t been utilizing this food source. He left his bag on the bank and jogged back to the fallen tree steeled himself for what he was going to do then he stuck his hand into the remains of the grub and scooped up as much as he could, it was then back to the river. He moved along the river¡¯s edge trying to find a perfect spot, he was looking for somewhere the water still had some depth but was very still he found an ideal looking area sheltered from the current by a bulge in the bank, he laid down and extended his handful of mushed grub into the water and held it there, much of the grub mess floated off he could see it leaving an oily film on the water as it went that would only help his plan hopefully there was still bits of grub sat in his hand. He laid there and waited he didn¡¯t know how long he waited but his body was uncomfortable and his arm was hurting from being held out for so long, still he held still and waited his patients was rewarded when he caught sight of a fish seemingly following the slow moving oil slick towards him. It got close enough that if he stretched out he could reach it, still he watched it get closer and closer until it took a lump of grub from his hand at that moment he jerked his hand underneath it, flicking his arm up and practically throwing it into the forest activating observe Gar went and found his fish, it was still alive. ¡°Brown trout level 3¡± ¡°You have killed a level 3 brown trout 3 experience awarded¡± Quick action with his knife finished the struggling fish, he then split it down the middle, pulled the guts out and chucked them back in the river, fortunately his dad had taken him fishing as a kid it wasn¡¯t really for him but he did know how to deal with a fish. Figuring it was best eaten fresh Gar decided to stop for a late lunch, he built himself a small fire, butterflied the fish used some sticks to keep it spread and another to hold it over the fire. It didn¡¯t take long over the heat of the flames and the fish was cooked, Gar realised the moment the fish hit his tongue what he had been missing out on. The fish was a little burnt but was still the best food he had eaten since he had come to this world, he had intended to savour the food but he practically inhaled the food unable to resist the delicious flavour, it was at that point fishing was moved up his priority list. The remains of the fish and the fire where all dumped unceremoniously into the river, followed by a quick wash and a long drink to end his break. With his meal over Gar hoisted his bag onto his back and continued his exploration, he still saw a few axen trees here and there but they were getting less and less regular he still made note of where they were as he was getting closer and closer to base. In high spirits after what he had found so far and expecting the forest exploration to be done by night fall, Gar was moving lightly when he saw something that he wasn¡¯t sure if it was a good thing or not, he was getting close to base by now maybe a twenty minute journey if he went in a straight line. The first of what this represented had been his biggest windfall in a supply of food, in front of him was a badger sett and it was a big one as well. This was useful, what should he do? Did he need to do anything? Whatever he was going to do about it he knew it wouldn¡¯t be done right then, he made mental note of where it was and moved on going round the sett carefully. Every time he was getting to the river there were some of the thorn berries, he had been seeing so many he didn¡¯t bother to gather any until he was much closer to base, figuring he was close enough but still gathering from further away than where he normally picked thorn berries. As he filled a bag with thorn berries the idea came to mind about transferring an entire bush still live up on his ledge, if he could make it work it could be an easy longer term food source as long as the berries were still growing, he considered it but wasn¡¯t sure he was going to be here long enough to need it in fact he sincerely hoped it wouldn¡¯t be. Musing done and berry gathered he went back to his zigzag path, when he next reached the river again he saw something he had kind of been hopping to see a willow tree, he knew you could weave the branches into baskets and all sorts of things, so with his knife he collected a large bundle of the long flexible branches, they were too big to fit in his bag so he tied the bundle with a bit of rope and carried it on his shoulder. He was starting to get tired by this point it had been a long day of walking and he was now carrying a lot, even so he pushed on back and forth determined to finish his exploration that day so he could move on to other things, it had been useful and profitable but he still did not like being away from his base like this he felt too exposed. He finished his exploration with about an hour before dark and he was tired, not the same tired as the previous day of emptying and refilling his stamina but a tiredness born of continuous walking and stress of danger. He didn¡¯t feel like starting a fire so after dropping his burdens he ate a cold dinner of the nettles and some dried meat drinking the nettle water. To complete his day he took a coal from the fire pit went over to the wall where he had started his map and added to it. He added the rough shape and size of the forest relative to his platform; he made sure to mark on the rough location of the cluster of axen trees and the few closer to him, as well as the badger sett and the willow tree. A note was also added of the nettles at the far end of the forest and the thorn berry bushes by the river, it added a lot to his previously small map and gained him a new skill ¡°New skill acquired cartography level 1¡± With that all added while it was still fresh in his memory Gar was out of things to do that day so crawled into bed. Another day with lots to do; to start he needed to check his snares, he had forgotten to do it yesterday and they weren¡¯t catching anything it might be time to take them down and try elsewhere. He still had a bit of water in his barrel but figured as he was going to the river he would collect some more water anyway more wouldn¡¯t hurt, with bucket and spear in hand he set off, first stop was at the axen tree, for the first time he had the courage to look around. It had been trashed he was able to find a number of bits of wire from his snares though so he gathered them up and put them in his pocket but there was nothing else he could gain from what he saw. At the river he decided as his snares had caught nothing since catching the badger it was time to take them down and he would try again once he had found a better location, a bucket of water from the river and it was back to base. His morning chores done he ate some nuts and berries for breakfast while deciding what to do for the day, there was a glaringly obvious task that needed doing, the processing of the slumbering vine it had just sat where he dumped it when he got it back, it was in the way and a trip hazard there and to make use of it he would need to process it in some way. He dragged it into the middle of his area to give himself some space as he decided what to do with it. He took a big knife and chopped all the thinner green vines off as close to the main body as he could, they got piled to one side it was quite a pile as those vines made up much of the things mass, next the thicker, thorny vines where cut off and put in another separate pile. All that was left at this point was the sweet smelling fluid filled sack and the fleshy green mass that sat behind the sack, Gar worked the long knife along behind the sack carefully cutting it away from the mass, he was unsure about the mass he couldn¡¯t see an immediate use for it. He ended up cutting it open to see if there was anything else of note or use inside, starting where his spear had opened it he lengthened the cut, it struck Gar as odd how little of the sap was in this part it was just large amounts of plant flesh, he made several more cuts to open up the mass finding nothing of interest, until he got to what seemed to be a separate pocket near its top, inside he found four hard brown thumbnail sized objects as well as several more white softer versions, he plucked out the harder ones and inspected it. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Slumbering vine seed The seed of a slumbering vine from this a new slumbering vine can grow, the plant develops one per level. Uses: ingredient, seed Value: ???? Quality: fine Rarity: Scarce Durability 75/75 They were seeds the other three returned identical results. He figured the smaller white lumps must be forming new seeds, if the biggest one was anything to go by the slumbering vine had been nearly level five. There was nothing else that caught his interest in the green mass so he hauled it over to the edge and dropped it in his waste pile. The plant sack sat about waist high from the ground, it reminded Gar of a pitcher plant except larger and wider with a broad leaf that could cover the top, he had left attached when separating the sack. The sack was a lot tougher than he had expected taking quite a bit of abuse in the process of getting it here and never splitting or leaking, it was smooth to the touch feeling somewhere between rubber and leather with a thick waxy coating that got on his hands as he touched and moved it, the liquid inside was a translucent pink colour for some reason making him think water melon, it smelt incredibly sweet and appetising similar to the sap but not the same, he inspected it Slumbering vine digestion sack A sack containing a sedative and strong acid in which a slumbering vine digests its prey Uses; material, cloth Value:???? Quality: Good Rarity: scarce Durability: 83/100 ¡°Inspect levelled up inspect level 3¡± It appeared it was taking some damage from its rough treatment as it had lost some durability. He defiantly shouldn¡¯t taste the liquid as it was most defiantly a sedative and acid, realising he didn¡¯t have to just assume Gar lifted the leaf lid stuck his head over the top so he could see the liquid and inspected it Slumbering vine digestive acid A strong acid used by a slumbering vine to digest its prey, it is also a sedative to keep its prey asleep during the process. Uses: ingredient, weapon Value:???? Quality: good Rarity: Scarce Durability: 50/50 Yes it was defiantly an acid, he didn¡¯t get how it could also put you to sleep but he wasn¡¯t going to try testing it to find out. With no current use for it and not wanting the sack to get damaged and leak acid everywhere Gar carried it over to an unused section of the cenote wall and placed the sack against it, it sounded useful he just wasn¡¯t quite sure for what yet. With that done he moved over to the thin green vines, he had thirty seven of the things, each between thirty and fifty meters long. There were two main things he wanted from them, the sap inside and the long fibres that made them up, the sap was coming already leaking out the cut end and more came out when the vine was squeezed. Before he could do anything with it he needed a container, he couldn¡¯t use his pans as they where needed for cooking, the bucket was also out as he only had one and he needed it to fetch water, the only thing left was his large log water barrel. He had spent so long making it to have a good water store that he was reluctant to give it up, however he knew if he wanted to keep the sap it was his best choice, he would have to make another one for water. Accepting he would have to last the few days it would take to make a new one, just collecting water each day as he had done it before. Not seeing a reason to wait he made sure his containers, pans and bucket where full of water then tipped over his water barrel, he would have preferred to have moved it and tipped the water off the edge of his ledge but the barrel was heavy enough empty, with water in it that wasn¡¯t going to happen. With the barrel as dry as he could get it and knowing he probably wasn¡¯t moving it again once it was full Gar set it up again against the back wall. He then brought a bundle of the vines over and put them down next to the barrel as he worked out how to drain the vines of the sap. It took some trial and error to find a good method of draining the sap while keeping the fibres, it was a mix of squeezing and rolling from the far end of the vine towards the cut end, it felt like emptying a very large tube of tooth paste. The first vine took over twenty minutes to squeeze dry, fortunately with a successful method and lots of practice he was able to speed up, with the amount he had to go through it was still late afternoon before he finished. Gar was happy with the results he had over half his barrel full of the sap, figuring he should get a better idea of what it was and doing so would help train the skill, Gar inspected the sap. Slumbering vine sap A sweet smelling sedative used to lure in the slumbering vines prey Uses: Ingredient, sedative Value:???? Quality: Good Rarity: Scarce Durability: 132/132 The results were pretty much what Gar had suspected although it was always good to have things confirmed and every little helped when working his skills. With no current use for the sap the lid was put on the barrel and Gar turned his attention to the vines themselves. He knew they were very fibrous and he wanted the long fibres, he was very much hoping he could use them to make some more rope, if he had to climb out of here he would need a lot more rope, and that isn¡¯t even mentioning the hundreds of other uses for rope. Realising that to make any use out of them he was going to have to separate them from the flesh of the vine. He settled on crushing as it would damage the flesh while leaving the fibres intact, his earlier squeezing of the sap had already started the process in some places. He made himself comfortable on the cleared ground near his fire pit sat with his back against the cliff wall. He had a vine in front of him and a smooth fist sized rock in his hand, Gar brought the rock down on the vine and rolled it a bit mashing the flash to a pulp while leaving the fibres relatively intact, he would then run the thin tips of his fingers through the mess, removing what pulp he could before moving the vine along and repeated for the next section. It didn¡¯t take doing more than a couple of meters before he realised how much work it was going to take, with no other alternative he continued at it as he felt it was worth the time. For the first time he felt he was actually working on something to get him out of here, rope would be the first step in that process and this was the very first step of getting rope so he worked with a smile on his face. At some point in the process it had become mechanical and he had stopped paying attention to what he was doing, just letting his mind wonder. It was dark when he came back to himself as he was just finishing off his second vine, only thirty five left to do he thought, he gathered the two slightly pulpy bundles of fibres and laid them in a spot that should get some sun for them to dry out. He turned back to his fire pit before turning again back to the bundles of fibres, bending and placing a couple of rocks on them, he didn¡¯t want to lose his hard work to the wind. He lit a fire and sat to enjoy a dinner of dried meat and berries, he had been eating the meat freely and there was not loads left, he knew he should think about hunting some more soon or perhaps a fishing trip he had enjoyed that last fish. Spreading the coals to help the fire die he crawled into his shelter to sleep, as he dreamed dreams of fresh meat and fish. 22: Mana discovery He crawled out into the rising sunlight ready for a new day he still had enough water in his bucket for the morning but he would have to get some more later, he ate a breakfast of boiled axen pods, out of pure curiosity he boiled a couple of the nuts with the pods just to see what happened, they were fine a bit softer than they normally where but no real difference in taste. As he cooked and ate he planned his day, he had two tasks at the top of the priority¡¯s list; finish processing the slumbering vine and to carve a new water barrel. Both where high priority, the vine needed to get done before it rotted and he was already missing the sense of security his own supply of water gave him, it felt like a massive risk not having it. Knowing that both tasks were liable to take multiple days he decided to do both at once he would spend the morning processing the slumbering vine and the afternoon making a new barrel. Not wanting to start with the thinner vines as he knew the tedium that awaited him there instead he went to the only part he hadn¡¯t looked at, the thicker thorny vines. He had eleven mostly intact ones reaching a max of about twenty meters in length and a number of large chunks. Taking one of the chunks to examine he looked it over, as thick as his wrist and leaking the same sweet smelling sap however where the other vines where flexible and squidgy this vine was hard and woody, it would bend but there was no way he was going to be able to squeeze the sap out. The other thing of note was the large barbed thorns that from what he remembered of the fight he knew where loaded with the sedative sap, he was tempted to test how sharp they were with his finger but already knew first-hand how they stung so thought better of it. He could tell that the thorns might be useful and realised that to do anything else with the vine he would need to remove the thorns first. With his conrex claw knife he started to remove the thorns from that section of vine and piling them next to him, the section wasn¡¯t particularly large so it didn¡¯t take that long, the thicker vines didn¡¯t seem to have the same fibres as the green thinner ones so the only other thing about them that could be of use was the sap there was plenty more room in his barrel. Removing it was a difficult task, squeezing and rolling like with the other type of vine was out as it was a lot less flexible than the other vine and didn¡¯t have that kind of give in it. He tried splitting a section of it open with his knife with hopes of pouring or scraping it out, the sap however was more in the flesh of the vine as opposed to the vine being a tube for it like the other type. After some time and his hands getting numb from getting covered in the sap as he tried to extract it Gar made up his mind it wasn¡¯t worth it he would just collect the thorns from the thicker vines. He rubbed his hands on the ground to remove excess sap and waited for the numbness to go, his hands were still sticky and needed a wash but he figured they would get messy again harvesting the rest of the thorns so he would deal with that afterwards. The rest of the morning was spent removing and piling up the thorns, he really needed some containers, finishing up at just about the right time for some lunch. After a bite to eat and a quick trip to the river for some fresh water Gar worked on his new barrel, first was to cut another section of trunk, this was slightly narrower than the previous piece but it was still plenty big enough for the job so he didn¡¯t worry too much with the one meter section cut it was onto Carving. That is how the next three days went; the morning was processing the slumbering vine and the afternoon carving his second barrel. Between his experience in doing it and his skill increases he had the barrel finished by the end of the second day, having only gained a single skill level. ¡°Sub-skill carving levelled up carving level 4¡± He had spent the whole of the third day just working the vines and reducing them to bundles of fibres that were then left out to dry. By the end of the day his hands where green, and numb from the sap, he had half expected some sort of skill in it but no such luck. He went to sleep that night with thoughts of doing something different and more exciting once he woke. Gar awoke early, before dawn, having slept restlessly. He just felt like he hadn¡¯t really done anything over the last few days, he knew that wasn¡¯t true but he felt it all the same and wanted to do something that would obviously progress him towards getting out of this hole. As he stood in the predawn light looking up at the towering cliff face, he realised that he did have a way to work towards getting out and even better it was a measurable one. His climbing skill, if he raised it high enough then he would be able to scale the cliff and get out of there. As a morning workout he started climbing the cliff, he didn¡¯t go high up as he wasn¡¯t in a position to deal with any injury from a fall so after getting about a meter off the ground he started moving along the cliff. It was different from climbing up and down but Gar was still confident that it would raise his climbing skill either way so he kept at it until he got the message he was waiting for. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Climbing levelled up climbing level 3¡± The sign of progress made Gar happy he could feel he was actually progressing towards a way out. He still had chores to do though so he got on with them, first was filling his new water barrel, having finished it the previous day it was just sitting empty. So he took some time to fill it, well at least three quarters of the way before he got bored and moved on to other things. The next thing he had to deal with was fire wood, he had been using a lot of the sticks and branches from the tree he had cut, to feed the fire but with how regularly he was lighting fires, he had gotten through most of them so to still have a supply of fire wood he needed to cut and split some of the larger branches, it surprised Gar how easy he found it in only a couple of hours he was able to get a supply sorted that he thought would last a few weeks. As he was sorting things out he checked on his food supply. He had a sack full of axen nuts and pods, some thorn berries but not that many, he had always had a sweet tooth and as the sweetest things he had he was always snacking on them, and about two kilos of dried badger meat left. So food wasn¡¯t an issue at that moment but he wanted to look at getting more before it could become an issue. Then he checked on his stick experiment he had been watering where needed daily and had even added to the rot for the last pair once. glancing across them he was pretty sure he had his final results all but the branch planted in the soil mixed with rot and watered daily where dead filled with grey mana, the final one seemed to be doing quite well even having sprouted some roots as he had discovered when mixing new rot into the shallow soil and having to be extremely careful not to damage the delicate things. Putting an end to the experiment he gathered up the other five sticks and chucked them into the fire pit to burn up later. Whilst doing so he had left mana site on and he caught a glimpse of another source of the grey mana in his camp. It was the badgers bones and unlike the branches the bones where dense with the grey mana. It took Gar a moment of thinking to remember how long it had been since he had killed the badger; it had been over two weeks, plenty of time for the grey mana to gather. Sitting down next to the pile of bones Gar picked up the skull to examine it, every part of it was filled with thick grey mana to the point there was a slight cloud of it extending outside the skull. Picking up several other bones to examine them he could see that they were all the same packed to the point they could no longer contain the grey mana. Gar was now curious could he do something with this mana, could he use it? Having finished his other chores and having no further plans for the day Gar settled in to find out. His first idea was could use the mana directly with his mana control? He spent a good while straining and struggling at the skill, trying to impose his will upon the mana inside the skull, Gar was unsure how long he spent trying but he was getting nowhere, he decided to try something different and go back that if nothing else worked. Instead he flipped his vision to the internal mana site he used to look at his mana core, then carefully taking control of some of his own mana he brought it from his core along the channels to the tip of his index finger; he managed it easily enough having practiced exactly that many times before. The next step he was a little unsure of having not done it before but it turned out rather easy to hold the mana at the tip of his finger and flip his vision back to the external. What did mess Gar up and force him to restart was when he tried to move his hand and lost control of the mana at his finger tip. He was back to the same point quickly enough and was able to move while keeping control of the mana shortly after, it wasn¡¯t overly difficult, it was a bit like rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time, doable but requiring more concentration than you normally would with movements. With control held he brought his finger to touch the side of the skull, holding it there he brought his will to bare in again trying to move the grey mana inside the skull. It didn¡¯t take long for Gar to give up on this as it wasn¡¯t working, instead he started trying to get his mana to interact with the grey mana, the small blob on the tip of his finger pushed up against the skull, when he started focusing on his mana he was encouraged by being able to feel something. He couldn¡¯t describe it exactly it was almost like a tingling or a pressure in the mana at his finger but that wasn¡¯t quite right, still feeling something encouraged him because it meant there was some interaction something was happening. After several hours Gar was getting disheartened he had thought he was onto something but he had made no progress he had tried to move the grey mana with his mana, tried to push his mana into the skull but nothing happened. It was only when he stopped and let go of his control of his mana that something happened. Suddenly the grey mana was moving, he couldn¡¯t see where but thought he knew anyway. There was a feeling that was both freezing cold and burning hot traveling up his arm, it only took a moment for him to flip his still active mana site to internal vision, it was just in time for him to see the blob of mana he had been controlling returning and spread round his core, it was not alone though as it returned it had brought along a string of the grey mana with it. He watched as the grey mana hit the outside of his core and spread out, he was relieved when he saw it go past the area where his mana entered his core but the panic spiked again as he saw the grey mana slowly start to enter his core from a different point and more was still coming from the skull. The grey mana was joining into the mana in his core, this scared him everything that was filled with the grey mana was dead he did not want to find out what happened if he filled up with it. 23: Company With all his panic driven will he grabbed the grey mana in his core; too focused on getting rid of it to be surprised that it worked, and slammed it into the hole that let mana out of his core. It did not go, it felt to Gar almost as if it had been blocked no matter how forceful he was he could not get it to go through. That was when the one part of his mind not panicking registered that perhaps as it had come in through a different point it had to leave through a different point, figuring it was worth a try Gar started pressing the mana up against the inside of his core until he found a point where the grey mana exited his core, it was actually very close to where the grey mana entered. In his panicked state Gar didn¡¯t notice but the grey mana was leaving his core a shade darker than it was when it entered. Moving as quick as he could while still maintaining control because there was still a trail of mana going into his core he brought the mana along his channels up his other arm and into the skull that was sat in that hand, this time when he tried the mana penetrated into the skull easily. A bit more relaxed now he wasn¡¯t filling up with the grey mana, he watched as the mana in the skull completely rotated through his body. He started to feel a pull towards the pile of bones, it was weak enough that he wasn¡¯t sure about it, at that point though he had stopped controlling the mana and was just watching it. He hadn¡¯t been able to work out how to sever his connection beyond maybe smashing the skull but he wanted to have exhausted all options before doing that. He followed the pull, bringing the skull to the pile of bones and digging through before he found what he believed was a vertebrae as soon as he picked it up he felt it was the right one, he brought it to the base of the skull and held it there. Nothing happened, he could see the grey mana in the vertebrae and the same grey mana in the skull that was still cycling through his core, except as he looked he realised it wasn¡¯t the same mana the mana in the skull was a slightly darker grey. Curious Gar picked up several other bones at random and they all had the same slightly lighter grey mana as the vertebrae. He had obviously done something to the mana in the skull something about cycling it through his core had changed it in some way. Gar wondered whether he could do the same with other bones, he didn¡¯t however want to start a second cycle running through him. Instead he took a hold of some of the mana in the skull, which to his surprise he found he could do with ease, and pushed that mana from the skull into the vertebrae, this seemed to link that bone into the cycle because soon the mana from it was being pulled through the skull through Gars core then back into the vertebrae. Gar sat and waited watching closely, this time he noticed as the colour in the bone slowly changed, once it was complete he let go of the vertebrae and it stayed in place. Feeling the pull of another bone after that one was changed, Gar knew he was going to see this through, his earlier panic and worries washed away in a wave of fascination and wonder. That is what he did; adding bone by bone to the cycle, some bones took longer than others and some bones particularly those with chips or fractures seemed to drain some mana from his core, but each bone was in pristine condition by the time he was done with it. At numerous points he had options as to which bone to do next, he had focussed on working from the head down to tail last. All which left him sat where he was many hours later in the dark of night with a single bone left at the tip of the tail. Gar watched with bated breath as the last piece was added, he felt when it was complete; there was no more pull to add another piece or to really do anything. Gar sat watching waiting for something to happen, nothing did and the mana just kept cycling like it had for a while. He just let out a sigh of exasperation and laid back thinking to himself he would just take a few minutes to relax and lay there for a while, when all of a sudden he heard the clatter of bones. He immediately sat back up and looked over the badger skeleton which had been standing on its feet since he finished adding the legs, it was on the ground. Not having fallen apart but more like it had lain down. This was too much he hadn¡¯t known what would happen when he finished but he wasn¡¯t expecting this, needing to take a minute Gar decided it was time to read the notifications he had been ignoring. The first couple where expected. ¡°Mana control levelled up mana control level 7¡± ¡°Mana control levelled up mana control level 8¡± Then things got interesting ¡°New skill acquired death magic level 1¡± ¡°Death magic levelled up death magic level 2¡± ¡°Death magic levelled up death magic level 3¡± So it seemed the grey mana was some form of death mana and in controlling it he had done death magic, it sounded ominous but he was too overexcited by having his own magic to care at that moment. The notifications still weren¡¯t done. ¡°New spell acquired skeletal puppet level 1¡± A spell an actual spell Gars excitement was building, the next notification was done all in gold lettering with fancy golden curls around it ¡°Achievement earned: Self-taught arcana¡± ¡°Self-taught arcana: through perseverance or dumb luck you have learnt your first spell with no outside help. For this feat your first spell shall be improved.¡± As he closed this notification he was almost blinded by a grey flash it lasted a moment but after it was gone his badger skeleton looked bulkier and thicker. It was all too much for him to deal with right then, he stood and walked to his shelter barely registering as the skeleton followed him, it was late and he would deal with everything in the morning. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°New stats added to status: + 2 willpower¡± The next morning Gar was surprised by the pile of bones curled up by his feet, if asked he would deny that he screamed when it turned to look at him as he sat up. He got up and lit a fire for some pine needle tea; he was going to have to see about getting some more pine needles soon as most of the ones he had where going brown. He made his tea and started cooking some of the strips of dried badger in a frying pan. It was a little disconcerting frying the badger meat while its skeleton stood behind him and seemed to watch. It did bring his focus to what he would be doing that day, investigating his new skeletal companions¡¯ capabilities. As he sat and ate his breakfast the skeleton just stood behind him. First thing was to have a good look at it Gar turned around where he sat and looked at the skeleton, it appeared slightly larger and all around thicker than the original skeleton, it was low to the ground topping out half way up his calf, but would reach his hip if stood up on its back legs. Activating mana sight he could see it was filled with what he now knew to be death mana and even more interesting there was still a string of the death mana cycling through his core despite him no longer touching the skeleton, it seemed to be a string of mana floating in the air connecting himself and the skeleton, Gar thought to himself that he would have to test and see how far that could stretch, but be careful because now he had made a puppet he didn¡¯t want it to break the string and destroy the skeleton or worse just break a control of it. Shutting of mana site the next step was observe and inspect he was unsure which was correct to use on the skeleton puppet so activated both simultaneously. He was glad he did because both gave back results, floating above its head were the result of observation. ¡°Skeletal puppet (badger) level N/A¡± Useful and it was good to be able to keep it marked but the inspect results where what really held his interest. Skeletal puppet badger The skeleton of a badger animated by Gar through the use of the basic death magic spell skeletal puppet, improved by the self-taught arcana achievement, slightly smarter and tougher than normal. Uses: Puppet Quality: Great Rarity: Common Durability: 200/200 This one was the first time he had seen his name in an inspection result he couldn¡¯t help but wonder if others would see it when inspecting his puppet. He was happy to find out his achievement had made it both tougher and smarter he had no base line to go off but more was only better. The other thing the inspect did was to remind him he had gotten a spell to do this, he could do it again if he wanted. It solved what he was going to do next because he almost felt a need to look at his spell and see what it did so he opened his status Status Race: Gargoyle Name: Gar Level: 2 Experience to next level 138/150 Health: 145/145 Stamina: 152/152 Mana: 72/72 Constitution: 12 Endurance: 12 Strength: 14 Agility: 6 Dexterity: 6 Willpower: 11 (10) Wisdom: 7 Intelligence: 7 Charisma: 3 Perception: 9 Luck: 5 Free attribute points: 3 Abilities Racial Personal Skills Free skill points: 1 Spells Achievements 24: Test run His status sheet was getting long now, Gar just skipped to the end focusing on the new stuff. He read through the description for his first spell and it was fairly simple, the spell let him make skeletal puppets, the boosted part was probably in reference to what his achievement did, he didn¡¯t understand the reserved willpower bit, he reread the description again slowly then looked over the rest of his status sheet. Which is when he noticed it, his willpower was 11(10) that was it one point of his willpower was used to maintain the spell it made sense as there had to be some sort of cost to keeping the skeleton about. It wasn¡¯t ideal as it meant he would be severely limited on skeleton puppets if each one needed a point of his willpower and while he wasn¡¯t exactly sure what willpower did he was sure he didn¡¯t want to take it too low by using it all to raise puppets. Particularly as he had no idea how to end the spell and get his willpower back, although as he thought this there was knowledge in the back of his mind that he hadn¡¯t known before. He knew he only had to mentally squeeze the connection between himself and the puppet and it would break returning his willpower and ending the puppet, he also knew that doing so would make the skeleton unusable to him as a puppet. He was unsure where this knowledge had come from but figured it was most likely gained when he got the spell or from his death magic skill. Like with everything in this world it seemed he answered one question only to end up with a dozen more. At some point he was going to have to examine this more, but at that moment he wanted to find out more about what his new companion could do. Looking at it he decided he needed to give it a name it was going to be his companion for a while as Gar had no intention of getting rid of it, a bit of support was just what he needed. He toyed with just calling it badger, then several other equally simple names, in the end though he had known what he was going to call it the moment he decided to name it. So it was christened Bodger, to Gars delight the words floating over the puppets head changed too. ¡°Bodger¡± It only took a thought to add back the previous. ¡°Bodger, skeletal puppet (badger) level N/A¡± And another thought returned it to just Bodger, Gar smiled to himself as he started putting Bodger through his paces. Control was easy enough it only required a thought directed Bodger¡¯s way. To start with Gar tested speed, he paced out twenty steps from Bodger then had Bodger run towards him as fast as it could, it wasn¡¯t the smartest idea, as it turns out Bodger can pick up quite a bit of speed over that distance but isn¡¯t the best at stopping. He crashed into Gar at almost full speed knocking him over and he was certain he was going to have bruised legs the next day, it had hit hard enough to take off a small bit of health. Gar also learnt that Bodger made a lot of noise when he ran the bones clattered and knocked together, he would have to be careful with him not to attract the wrong kind of attention. While he was thinking about noise he had Bodger move away from himself as quietly and as stealthily as it could it wasn¡¯t too bad a result as long as the speed was kept down Bodger could move quietly and when still was absolutely silent. Gar spent a few hours finding out what Bodger could do; it could run, jump, dig although the dirt on the plateau was a bit shallow to really test that and it couldn¡¯t go through stone, it could climb trees but required much hands on instructions on how to do each movement. It couldn¡¯t bark or growl but could make a rather loud and threatening noise by snapping its jaws together, it could count basics like number of steps but seemed to have no concept of time, instructed to wait ten seconds then run got no result, attempts to teach time did nothing. It could stand on its back legs, not for long but it did seem to be improving so may it have been able to get better with practice the ability to learn would require further testing. Gar learnt a lot and couldn¡¯t keep the smile off his face, he hadn¡¯t realised how happy this would make him. He had been holding it together to keep going, he had been scared for so long. In front of him Bodger changed it all, it was a sign of Gars own magic a thing that fascinated and excited him and not only that his magic was exactly what he needed, it let him have someone to go in front, someone to stand between himself and the monsters, someone he could follow when he had to go into the places that scared him and that was a gift he hadn¡¯t even realised he needed but now he had it, it lifted his spirits immensely. One of the best parts was he could make more and even knew where to find more badgers. He had visions of armies of skeletal badgers surrounding and protecting him maybe even bigger creatures like those bears. As soon as the idea of the bear skeletons come to mind he shook a little and pushed it away he was not going to be trying to take on those bears again, bringing himself back to reality Gar sat by his fire pit and started to plan because the next day he was going hunting. Gar woke early and was moving quickly a cold breakfast and a drink of water where all he did before grabbing his stuff and moving to the ladder Bodger following behind. Stood at the top of the ladder he put his backpack on the ground and had Bodger climb inside, before putting it back on and climbing down only to let Bodger out again on the ground. They travelled round following the cliff wall, Bodger lead with Gar a few paces behind. Gar ordered Bodger to be on high alert and to notify if he sensed anything, Gar having no idea if Bodger was smart enough to understand this command gave it anyway figuring it couldn¡¯t hurt and it made him feel better to think his companion was as alert as he was. They followed the cliff for a while before cutting into the forest; it took some walking back and forth and an abysmal attempt at tracking on Gars part, before finding it due to Bodger¡¯s efforts. Gar had gotten frustrated and given the command to find them, not expecting anything; Bodger had immediately put its non-existent nose to the ground and headed off. They were standing a way off from the badger sett keeping it under observation, the sun had risen several hours ago and Gar had made a mistake in his hurry to get there. Badgers are nocturnal; he had planned to catch a badger or two when they were away from their den and between himself and Bodger take them down. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. He sat and watched the sett for nearly an hour. In that time he came up with three options; one he could come back at night, two he could send Bodger into the sett, three he could trap the area. Option one was dismissed, everything from fantasy to reality said the dangerous stuff came out at night he was not going to risk himself. Option two possible, although he did not know how the badgers would react, if they ran that was good he could hunt some down, if they fought all together Bodger would lose, this was a big sett there could be over twenty badgers in there. Option three should be relatively safe for himself and Bodger but with lots of entrances and lots of routes the badgers could take and that would be ignoring the fact they could just dig new ones, it would require some luck. Option three was the obvious choice, sure it could fail but there was no risk to him if it did and he could always try other options later. A little disappointed he would have to wait longer to get more puppets, Gar started scouting the area searching for every entrance to the sett. While he was reluctant to do it he left Bodger further back as he got closer, he would have preferred the extra protection but Bodger made too much noise and Gar didn¡¯t want the badgers disturbed before he was ready. The sett was much larger than Gar had originally imagined, with his limited amount of wire and the relatively large size of a badger for a snare trap, Gar focussed his trapping on the side of the sett facing towards the river. First setting up snares on the obvious routes to the river then as he got used to being around the badger home he moved closer to the entrances carefully setting snares outside a number of them, it was cautious and careful work with his last few snares he set them on the other side of the sett and made sure to spend some more time around that area as well to ensure his scent and tracks where everywhere and not just in the direction he wanted the badgers to go as he suspected that might backfire on him. Finishing a lot sooner than he had planned and with nothing to show for it Gar was unsure what to do with him-self once he got back to base, having anticipated action then finding none Gar was restless. He only stayed at base long enough to grab a bite to eat before he was off again. Only this time he was heading down river, he had briefly crossed through this area when he originally found his base it was time to explore it a bit more thoroughly. The area was much smaller than the forest and Gar was sure he could explore it in an afternoon then add it to his map. Gar was strolling along with Bodger at his heels the area around him less dense with trees the further he went, the trees also seemed slimmer with clusters of roots sticking out above ground. Gar did a few passes back and forth through the trees with nothing of note until he was nearing the end of the cenote and its wall, there was a sound, movement through the leaf litter. Gar stopped moving listening hard to pinpoint a direction, the sound was behind him and moving, trying to work out which direction it was going Gar looked for a place to hide. Before he could do anything he saw it and it was an ant, a giant ant. Flicking on observe it was identified as a. ¡°Mega-ra ant worker level 2¡± The thing was a similar size to Bodger, the same height but longer body Grey carapace big black eyes and six spindly legs sticking out to the side. As it ran straight at Gar he did the only thing that came to mind, he sent Bodger to intercept. Bodger launched at the incoming ant, swiping and biting, receiving a snap to its ribs from the ant¡¯s mandibles, not breaking the bone but Gar distinctly saw chips of bone fall off. Not wanting to loose Bodger so soon Gar had him back off but keep the ants attention, the ant would keep lunging at Bodger and snapping while the skeleton would jump back and swipe a claw at the ant in return, Bodger was ceding ground fast and not returning much damage, Gar was reluctant but needed to get involved. Spear held at the ready Gar moved round to the side of the pair, the ant focussed on Bodger ignoring Gar completely. Moving in just close enough for his spear to reach Gar brought it down on the ant¡¯s head, at the last moment the ant shifted its head the spear careened off barley leaving a crack in the carapace. The attack was enough to get the ants attention as it turned Bodger came in and swiped at an eye scoring a good hit, the attack also succeeded in bringing the ants attention back onto Bodger. Gar backed up a little and watched the two go at it looking for an opportunity, even with a wounded eye Bodger was losing ground, the ant was just more manoeuvrable than Bodger was, Gar resolved to fix that he moved in again, bringing his spear in a sweeping arch across, severing two legs on one side, before the ant could orientate itself another quick swing and the final leg on that side was severed the stumps leaking green viscus fluid. The ant was still alive shuffling slowly in the dirt, Gar had Bodger back off, still keeping the attention by snapping its jaws together threateningly. Moving round behind Bodger and to the other side of the ant he removed those legs as well, unable to move the ant posed minimal threat so Gar moved in placed a foot on its back then drove the spear straight down at the base of its head finally killing it ¡°You have killed level 2 Mega-ra ant worker 5 experience awarded¡± With the ant dead Gar was torn between taking the body and leaving it, in the end he left it and started retreating to base because if there was one ant there was more, lots more Gar did not want them following the scent of their dead friend back to his base. Not willing to take the risk and unsure which direction other ants would come from Gar didn¡¯t head straight to base instead heading to the river following it up stream then looping back round to his base hoping not to have left a trail the ants would follow. 25: Lets make more Gar sat by a fire contemplating what had happened. He had killed the ant without any real risk to himself and taking no harm, Bodger had taken some damage which had been easily fixed by pumping in some mana into it through there connection. He had had a fight and with Bodger by his side came out on top. If his traps where a success he would have even more help soon, all that put Gar in a good mood so he decided to experiment a bit with cooking. He took some thorn berries in a pan mashed them a bit then set it over the fire giving it a bit of time to boil and reduce down, once he had a thick sticky mess he seared a few of the larger strips of meat in the frying pan before pouring the berries over the top. ¡°Cooking levelled up cooking level 4¡± Gar sat leaning back against the cliff slowly eating his meal, it wasn¡¯t good the flavours where just all wrong, he slowly ate it anyway it was different so that was enough for him then eating some nuts and berries until he was stuffed, despite its taste it was the best meal he had eaten since coming to this world content just to let his mind wonder as he watched the fire burn. He came back to himself as the fire burned down to embers it had been hours, it was fully dark, his dark vision let him see normally, that wasn¡¯t what alerted him though. There was a disturbance in the forest a noise he had not heard before, he moved closer to the edge trying to make anything out and work out what was going on. The disturbance continued and it worried him he was unsure what was happening, until he got an answer. ¡°You have killed a level 4 Badger 12 experience awarded¡± This was swiftly followed by another message. ¡°Level up you are now level 3¡± ¡°As a Gargoyle you gain 1 point to constitution, 1 point to strength and 1 point to perception, along with 3 free attribute points per level up. You may also choose a skill to advance a level¡± It was the badgers causing the disturbance and it didn¡¯t sound like it was over waiting a while proved that right as there were two more messages. ¡°You have killed a level 3 badger 7 experience awarded¡± ¡°You have killed a level 4 badger 9 experience awarded¡± Not to long after that message things seemed to quiet down Gar was tempted to go have a look right then and to collect the bodies, instead he crawled into bed he didn¡¯t fall asleep easily and when he did it was restless. Gar awoke with the sun, crawled out bleary eyed and still tired, he wanted to just go back to sleep. Instead he built a fire and made some tea, mentally collecting new pine needles was added to Gars to do list as all his where browning and dead. A quick breakfast and Gar was off to collect his badgers, he had his empty rucksack on his back, spear in hand and Bodger at his heels. Gar moved swiftly through the forest until he was close to the badger sett. He approached cautiously, this time bringing Bodger with him. He saw the three bodies all on the river side of the sett snares round their necks. He did a full loop round the sett checking all the snares before approaching; there were no other badgers in sight and nothing else either. Still being cautious Gar sent Bodger to nudge each body just to check they were actually dead. They were so Gar had Bodger stand watch while he collected the bodies and gathered his snares. ¡°Traps levelled up traps level 5¡± A welcome reward for a job well done even if it was anticlimactic, with two of the bodies in his rucksack and one slung over his shoulder, Gar walked back with a smile on his face, he had been fit in his old body but he doubted he could have easily walked around with this much weight on his back. Between the three bodies and Bodger it took two trips up the ladder. Once everything was up Gar set to the messy task of preparing the bodies it was going to take most of the day to get through the three. By late afternoon he was done, a mess but done. He had separated the Furs and had them laid out, the organs had been removed and thrown over the edge to his rubbish pile, the bones had been cleaned off and sat in three separate piles, while the meat had been sliced thinly and hung on racks to dry, except for two of the largest slabs he could cut off which he was saving for dinner. He had also taken the extra step of collecting all the fat he cut off into one of his pans, he hoped he could clean it up and use it to improve his cooking, he wasn¡¯t sure where that idea came from but suspected it was a hint from his cooking skill. All the rest of the gristle and tendons where dropped over the edge. Gar was happy not to do much else that day, he sat next to his fire with one of his pans full of the fat slowly heating, the smell of the fat in the pan was heavenly it made his mouth water and his heart race. Once all the fat was liquid and had boiled for a while he used the lid to let the liquid fat drain out and keep all the little bits of meat and gristle that had gone in with the fat, keeping it all in the pan. The fat in his other pan, snacking on the little bits of meat, it hadn¡¯t been his plan to eat them they just smelt too good to resist. He put a generous helping of the fat into the frying pan then fried up his slabs of fresh badger meat, Gar didn¡¯t think he would ever be a fan of eating badger if he had to fried in fat was a much better way of doing it, a few sliced axen pods were also chucked in to fry alongside the meat and it smelt great. Gar went a little wild cooking thing¡¯s in fat frying them up to see how they taste. He went to sleep that night full and satisfied. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. In the early hours of the morning before dawn Gar was woken up something Gar hadn¡¯t thought about had happened. It was raining. The weather up until that point had been so consistent he hadn¡¯t thought about it, this had brought it to the forefront of his mind. Fortunately his shelter seemed to be holding up and water tight with only a little damp area near the ends. He had dashed out into the rain grabbing things he had left out all over the place and thrown them into his shelter; first his tools and equipment, then his supplies nuts, pods, berries, the slumbering vine fibres all into his shelter. He wanted to try and save his meat but it was soaked and he had no way to store it, it was only going to bring bugs and disease in to his shelter if he took it of the racks and bundled it up, so with regret he left it where it was. The last thing he brought in was the three piles of bones. If he could have gotten it before the rain started he would have brought in some wood as well, to make a fire once the rain stopped, he was too late though all his wood was soaked, so was he. He retreated into his shelter Bodger followed after; it was cramped inside with all his stuff, still Gar was able to find a comfortable position to sit. Looking outside at the rain that was still hammering down Gar figured he was going to be there awhile so got comfortable as he could and started on something to keep him busy. He cast his spell skeletal puppet for the first time. It required just an act of will to activate then the process sort of took over a new string of death mana was drawn from the skull through his core then out through his fingertip and back into the skull that was sat on top of the pile of bones he was pointing at. So much more convenient not even having to touch the bones, simpler and easier not requiring Gars full concentration, it did however still take time. Gar didn¡¯t mind though he had time to kill and without having to use all his concentration on guiding the process he enjoyed watching the mana flow. Hours passed magic flowing until the spell completed. ¡°Skeletal puppet levelled up skeletal puppet level 2¡± In front of him stood another skeletal puppet badger looking much the same as Bodger a quick inspect revealed it to be basically identical. Skeletal puppet badger The skeleton of a badger animated by Gar through the use of the basic death magic spell skeletal puppet, improved by the self-taught arcana achievement, slightly smarter and tougher than normal. Uses: Puppet Quality: Great Rarity: Common Durability: 200/200 A few basic commands and Gar was happy the new skeleton was just as quick and responsive as Bodger which made him happy. Knowing he needed to distinguish his skeletons when giving commands Gar had to think of something to call this new one, the problem was twofold first he sucked with names and to keep coming up with new ones was hard. The second names meant he got attached he had realised that with Bodger he wanted these to be his guards his protectors to do the dangerous things so he didn¡¯t have to, but if he was honest he wasn¡¯t sure if he could send Bodger into a situation where he might lose him even taking risks to avoid that. He needed to avoid that with the new skeletons, still needing to refer to it as something Gar kept it simple it would be badger one or B1 for short. B1 was sent outside to give some more space in the shelter, Gar looked at Bodger curled up next to him in the cramped space, he thought about sending it out as well to open up more space, he couldn¡¯t bring himself to do it despite knowing the rain would do the skeleton no harm. With that done Gar had one more thing to check before raising another skeleton. With a simple thought he brought up a shortened status page leaving off abilities and skills so just showing his stats Status Race: Gargoyle Name: Gar Level: 3 Experience to next level 21/225 Health: 155/155 Stamina: 155/155 Mana: 72/72 Constitution: 13 Endurance: 12 Strength: 15 Agility: 6 Dexterity: 6 Willpower: 11 (10) Wisdom: 7 Intelligence: 7 Charisma: 3 Perception: 10 Luck: 5 Free attribute points: 6 Gar was happy seeing his numbers going up, but was confused as well he thought the (10) next to his will power of 11 was because Bodger was using one point of willpower with B1 as well he had expected to go to (9) that wasn¡¯t the case. It was a good thing he supposed it was also a bit disappointing because he thought he was starting to understand this system and this just proved it was still a mystery to him, with nothing he could do about it and no other information on it he closed the status and pulled the next pile of bones in front of himself. It got dark early that night what with the clouds and the rain, in his little shelter Gar barely noticed as he finished off his final skeletal puppet. ¡°Skeletal puppet levelled up skeletal puppet level 3¡± ¡°Death magic levelled up death magic level 4¡± Happy with his increases Gar threw his latest puppet a quick inspect. Giving back identical results to the previous badger skeletons. Calling the others back in from outside he had all his badgers line up in front of him he had Bodger, B1, B2 and B3 all of them looked the same. Gar wanted to say that Bodger looked slightly different and he could tell the difference, that Bodger was special. In truth though he couldn¡¯t tell they were identical, which in and of itself was a bit weird, Gar was sure the badgers he had killed where not all the same size, his only guess was that the spell standardised them in some way. Gar wasn¡¯t going to worry about it too much it was just one of hundreds of questions he had. Despite the rain he sent his new skeletons out of his shelter B1 and B2 to guard the entrance and B3 to go round and guard the other end it wasn¡¯t necessary up on his shelf but it made him feel a little bit safer and he needed the space in his cramped little shelter, with that he found space too curl up, Bodger next to him and fell asleep 26: Invasion As he sat one morning continuing to twist the fibres he reached for some more to splice in as he was near the end, only to find he didn¡¯t have any left the first step was over, as both sides where nearly out, rather than cut one side and try to splice it into the other he simply tied off the ends together, the cord he had made was hundreds and hundreds of meters long whilst being no thicker than a shoe lace, if it was going to be any use in climbing out of this hole it was going to need to be a lot stronger which meant thicker so even more twisting. Having reached a stopping point Gar wanted to do something different for a while, he had nothing specific in mind he would be fine with anything as long as it was different. The rain had eased a bit, not stopped just not pounding down, so he decided to use the opportunity to stretch his legs and check on his camp, make sure the rain hadn¡¯t ruined anything, not that there was much to ruin. Checking the outside of his shelter it seemed to be doing well the sheets of moss and plants really seemed to hold the mud together and help the rain run off. The fire pit was washed out a black line of soot and ash flowed away from it, all his wood was soaked, he was going to have to find some more dry wood to light any fires when the rain eventually stopped. He groaned in disappointment when he looked at his meat most of it was still hanging on the drying wracks he had made, some had fallen to the floor all of it though had gone beyond being edible. All that food wasted was a crushing blow to Gar unable to stand just looking at the waste Gar started pulling the meat from the stands; he instructed the badgers to pick up the pieces and throw them off the edge where he had been dumping his rubbish. He stopped throwing the meat against the ground when one particularly rotten piece splattered across his feet after impact, settling for just letting the pieces drop once he got them off the frame for the badgers to pick up. He was drawn out of his work, and sulking, by a snapping sound, B2 was snapping his jaws together, making a rather loud noise looking at what was going on. Something was just poking over the edge of his ledge, as he watched it became clear it was an antenna, followed by the rest of the ant. With something to take his sour mood out on Gar jumped into action. The four badgers raced at the ant as Gar ran for his shelter, grabbing his spear from where it lay then he was off to the ant. ¡°Mega-ra ant worker level 2¡± Before Gar could get there the ant had already lost five of its legs to the attacks from the badgers, it almost looked pathetic wiggling on the ground with only one leg. Gar stepped to the side of it then brought his spear down just behind the things head removing it completely. ¡°You have killed a level 2 Mega-ra ant worker 3 experience awarded¡± ¡°Basic spear levelled up basic spear level2¡± The head rolled off coming to a stop against B1¡¯s front leg, Gar was unsatisfied he felt something inside calling for blood, he wanted more of a fight, movement over the edge of the plateau caught his attention, more ants where Climbing over the edge, down below there was a veritable parade of ants. A sinking feeling in his gut became a gut wrenching lurch when he saw an ant running away with a piece of the rotten meat in its mandibles. Gar realised he had brought the ants straight to him, dumping rotten meat, scraps and waist over the edge, he had thought the height would protect him from any scavengers that might come. Unfortunately for him what had come where ants and a vertical wall was nothing to them. The fear he felt washed away any annoyance or anger he just wanted to run, he was at his base his one safe place in this world he had nowhere to run too. A snap of bone jaws pushed the fear back just enough to let him function, he wasn¡¯t alone he had Bodger and the others. Two ants where mostly onto the platform while a third head was just poking over, the first two got two badgers each sent to deal with them, the third Gar would deal with himself, he wanted nothing more than to stand back and let the badgers take the risk but knew if he didn¡¯t get involved as well there were too many ants and they would get overrun even with his help that was a distinct possibility. Gar got to the third ant just as it was moving over the edge before the thing could bring itself fully over the edge Gar swung his spear like a bat impacting the ant and sending it falling back over the edge. Gar moved onto the next closest ant Bodger and B1 where at this one harassing it and looking for an opening Gar had them both move to the side of the ant away from him, the ant turned to face its aggressors giving Gar an opening from behind, a wide swing of his spear in from the side and he was able to cut through two of the legs on the ants right side, with the creatures mobility reduced to practically nothing Bodger and B1 where quickly able to dart in and finish it off. ¡°You have killed a level 3 Mega-ra ant worker 4 experience awarded¡± Looking over to where B2 & B3 where just finished off there ant. ¡°You have killed a level 2 Mega-ra ant worker 3 experience awarded¡± A quick look over the edge told Gar he had a little time before any more ants got to the top. He gathered the badgers near him then looked down to see what he was dealing with, there were about six more ants climbing up the cliff to his platform, there was another twenty or so ants crawling over and digging in his waste pile. He saw what he could only assume to be the ant he had knocked of his ledge it had a few ants carrying it its carapace cracked and dented a few of its legs sticking out at odd angles and obviously broken, the ants carrying the injured one where in a chain of ants leading away from the platform following the high walls round, each ant carrying a chunk of something from the waste pile. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. No more time to observe as the next ant reached the top. In direct control of the badgers Gar was able to dispatch it quickly, as its two front legs reached over the top he had B2 and B3 grab a leg each in their jaws and pull, the ant fell forward onto the ground right in front of Bodger who moved forwards while the ant was disorientated and finished it with a savage bite. ¡°You have killed a level 2 Mega-ra ant worker 3 experience awarded¡± A quick, clean, and efficient kill, it had still taken to long. With all his focus on controlling the badgers to be most efficient dealing with one ant he had given time for three more ants to climb onto the ledge, they were close together, observe showed two where more workers the third was different it was bigger than the others with large serrated mandibles, it was revealed to be a. ¡°Mega-ra ant solider level 5¡± The solider was twice the size of its worker counterparts Gar had no idea what he should be doing he wasn¡¯t a commander he didn¡¯t know tactics, time was not on his side more ants where coming whatever he did he had to do it quick, with no better option Gar advanced on the ants, B3 was sent at the worker on the left, B2 for the worker on the right, Bodger and B1 where sent at the solider. All the badgers where given the same instructions get the ants attention but stay out of its range of attack. Gar followed B2, the solider was the main threat but the workers couldn¡¯t just be held off or Gar and his badgers would just be overwhelmed as more ants arrived. B2 easily got the workers attention the ant lunged and snapped its mandibles at B2, receiving a swipe from B2¡¯s claws across the face in return. During this exchange Gar moved round to the side and swung down, trying to repeat his act from before and remove the ants head. Instead the ants movements and Gars poor control led to him striking the ant on the back, cracking the carapace before the knife that was his spear tip slipped down scoring a middle leg then continuing on to the floor, this left Gar at a bit of an awkward angle and off balance, the ant turned towards the attack lunging again with its mandible. Gar flailed he wasn¡¯t able to tell if he got lucky and moved the spear in the way or if the ant aimed for the spear, either way it bit down on the shaft near the blade. Using the leverage of the shafts length Gar was able to twist the whole ant pushing it down into the ground and pinning it. Before the ant could realise it just needed to release its mandibles to be free Gar had B2 move in and finish it off. ¡°You have killed a level 3 Mega-ra ant worker 4 experience awarded¡± The fight had felt like an age to Gar when it had been done in a few strikes over a few seconds. B2 was sent to help B3 with the other worker while Gar did a quick check for any ants that had reached the top before turning his attention towards the solider ant. The solider ant seemed to be doing okay against Bodger and B1, there were some scratches in its legs but it seemed to have the strength and armour advantage the badgers seemed to be faster and the solider hadn¡¯t been able to get a good hit in. The badgers and Gar where going to have to be extremely careful because one direct hit from that thing would be all it takes to take them out. To avoid the ant Bodger and B1 had had to give ground and, so there was space behind the ant between it and the cliff edge. Moving round Gar got behind the large ant, the things carapace as a solider was undoubtedly tougher than a worker so Gar aimed for the legs, specifically where it joined the body. At the last moment before the spear hit the joint the ant shifted knocking the spear off course and pointing its backside at Gar. Gar felt burning at his waist dropping him to the floor in pain, the ant had shot something at him, some liquid it had splashed across his waist line and it burned. Acid, Gar had known some earth ants used acid it just hadn¡¯t occurred to him that this thing would as well. Gar rolled on the ground rubbing the acid off on the moss, his actions would have looked perverse if anyone had been watching as he thrust and rubbed his waist into the ground, he didn¡¯t care he just needed to get the acid off. Gar was saved from the ant capitalising on his moment of weakness by Bodger and B1 latching onto a leg each during the ants distraction to fire its acid and it seemed between its large size and inflexible body the soldier ant was unable to bring its mandibles to bear on the skeletons so they held on and savaged the legs while the ant tried to shake them off. With the acid no longer burning into him Gar got to his feet remaining hunched over, more to reduce pain than any attempt at stealth, B1 got flung off the leg it held landing a way off, quickly getting up and dashing back seemingly undamaged. Bodger let go of its leg as well, instead of moving back though Gar had Bodger get low and move under the large ant. Gar was behind and to the left of the soldier ant; B1 was in front and to the right of the ant while Bodger was directly underneath the solider ant. The ant was battered but going strong two legs on its right side where savaged and didn¡¯t seem to be able to hold any weight however unlike the workers this ant seemed to have enough strength in one leg on a side to hold itself up, this ant was defiantly much smarter than the workers. That still did not mean it was smart, B1 snapped its jaws darting in and out swiping its claws, Gar thrust and waved his spear about both doing what they could to get the ants attention and staying away from the back end and the mandibles. Before the ant could work out what to do Gar had Bodger attack the last leg on the ants right side, Bodger got a good bite in Gar could hear the crunch from where he stood, with no working legs on its right side the ant collapsed unable to get up, Gar circled the ant going round the front staying away from the acid launching back end, while giving the still very deadly mandibles a wide berth. Once on the creatures right side he continued approaching a badger on either side of him just in case, still a little hunched over from the pain of his acid burns. Unable to do much to stop him the ant had no choice only able to watch as he approached then plunged his spear into the insects compound eye, it sank in with a disgusting squelch, it went in deep, the ant still lived, Gar lent on the end of the spear shaft driving it in deeper until he got the message. ¡°You have killed level 5 Mega-ra ant solider 13 experience awarded¡± ¡°You have killed level 2 Mega-ra ant worker 3 experience awarded¡± B2 and B3 had finished the other worker as well, Gar wanted to just celebrate victory and rest, he was out of luck another ant could already be seen coming over the edge. Gar changed tactics they couldn¡¯t keep up trying to kill every ant and the blood lust he felt wasn¡¯t him he wasn¡¯t trying to kill everything in his way. Instead he had B1 the closest to the new ant, charge it as the ant came over the edge, slamming straight into the ant and knocking it off the cliff, it had been a snap decision but one Gar was glad he made it worked surprisingly well. A look over the edge showed Gar a few more ants were coming, the majority of them still seemed more interested in the waste pile than him, and the ant that was knocked of the cliff was doing better than the last one he had knocked off still injured but leaving under its own strength. 27: Pushing back Gar stepped back and sat down. It was still raining and he was soaked, until he had dealt with the ants he couldn¡¯t let his guard down. He had the badgers watching the edge, each time an ant would pop up one of them would charge it and knock it off, and it was working and the ants coming up slowed down. Gar didn¡¯t think the same tactic would work if another solider ant showed up unfortunately. Taking the few minutes this brought him Gar inspected were the acid hit him, the area around his waist and left hip was painful and had come up in a dark blue colour, Gar tried some movements and stretches finding he could still move despite it hurting like hell, fortunately it seemed the movement didn¡¯t make anything worse. The rain had long since washed it clean from where he was rubbing it on the ground and any remaining acid. He was as good as he could be so turned his mind to what he would do next, for the moment the ants were more interested in his waste pile with only a few climbing up to his ledge, what would happen once they had dug through the whole pile? He did not know would they turn all there force in his direction? It was obvious he needed a solution before then. Gar looked around to assess what he had to use. The badgers were still near the edge knocking off the occasional ant, then he noticed his barrels particularly the one full of slumbering vine sap, he also still had about half the rotten meat. The pieces where coming together in Gars mind for a plan, he needed to work quickly before another solider showed up. He grabbed his cup rushed to the barrel, slid the lid aside and scooped out some sap, then pulled a piece of meat off the rack. With cup and meat in hand he stood five meters from the edge and commanded the badgers to allow the next ant to come up. Gar allowed the ant worker to fully pull itself onto the plateau, dipping the meat in the cup of sap being careful to not get any on his fingers. Gar then threw the meat so that it landed just in front of the ant. The ants¡¯ reaction to the meat was immediate, it moved forwards picked up the piece of meat and started eating it, Gar hadn¡¯t known how effective the sap would be or even if it would work at all. He needn¡¯t have worried, before the ant had even finished the piece of meat it slumped to the ground and remained still. This was just in time as Gar saw B3 slam into the next ant pulling itself over the edge only this time instead of knocking the ant off B3 bounced back as the large solider ant pulled itself up. To make it worse before B3 could regain its footing a flick of the large ants leg sent B3 hurtling over the edge to crash down onto the ground below. Gar wanted to scream, wanted to rush down and check on B3, he couldn¡¯t he held it in, he left Bodger watching for more ants and had B1 and B2 come to assist him with the solider ant. The problem was Gar had forgotten he wasn¡¯t holding his spear that had been left on the ground where he sat down, in his hand instead was the cup of slumbering vine sap. From the way its antennae waggled and it turned towards him Gar was pretty sure the solider ant could smell the sap. The ant charged at him, he had B1 and B2 try to get its attention, the ant just continued on. B1 latched onto a leg while B2 was knocked away the ant didn¡¯t take any notice of either of them it just continued on at Gar. That was not how the ants had previously acted; the seconds it took Gar to work out what was causing the change almost cost him dearly. The Cup of sap in his hand that was what the ant was fixated on, at the last moment as the mandibles hit him Gar threw the sap cup and all into the ants face. The ant ignored Gar lying on the floor and started trying to get at the sweet smelling sap that was all over its face. Gar just lay there frozen he¡¯d had B1 and B2 back off not wanting to distract the ant from the sap, slowly Gar dragged himself back he was sore all over from the hit and the fall. Once far enough away he got to his feet continuing to back up until he could pick up his spear, then he just stood and watched the solider ant. It took a couple of minutes, during which Gar sent B1 to go help Bodger knock off any workers, before the solider had managed to get enough sap in its mouth before it too slumped over still, much like the worker. With B2 by his side Gar slowly approached the ant, he had B2 nudge the sleeping ant he got no response then standing to the side and back a bit he had B2 bite on one of its legs, still no response. Satisfied the ant was out, Gar approached, he couldn¡¯t leave it like this he had no idea how long it would be out, having not received experience it definitely wasn¡¯t dead. Lining his spear up he brought it back then brought it down hard at the back of the ants head, it cut in but not that deep, and it took three more swings before he got the message. ¡°You have killed a level 5 Mega-ra ant solider 13 experience awarded¡± Then still one more swing to sever the head completely, he had B2 finish off the first sleeping worker. ¡°You have killed a level 2 mega-ra ant worker 3 experience awarded¡± Gar left the bodies where they laid moving over to the edge to look down; no more soldiers appeared to be climbing so he had a bit of time. Looking around he saw where B3 lay unmoving, while there was still a connection it wasn¡¯t the same as normal it was weak and Gar couldn¡¯t give any orders through it. He wanted to go check on it see if he could help out, but before he could do that he needed to deal with the ants, if he was to go down there he would simply be overwhelmed by the number of ants. He took some time to set himself up. Bodger, B1 and B2 took care of the workers climbing up while Gar gathered the rotten meat in a pile at the top of the cliff above his waste pile then set a bucket of slumbering vine sap on the ground next to it. This time he also made sure his spear was right next to him just in case. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Gar took the first couple of pieces of rotting meat dipped them in the sap then chucked them over the edge such that they landed near the edge of the cluster of ants on the waste pile. Ants froze then turned practically as one towards the bits of meat then they all moved, not giving them a chance to look for where it came from Gar started dropping coated meat all around the ants. Gar saw for the first time the ants descend into a chaotic mess, soldiers where bullying smaller workers out of the way to be first to get to the pieces of meat, he even saw ants grabbing meat out of slumbering ants mandibles. He kept the meat spread out so no one ant got it all or was able to hoard it for itself, he made sure to drop several bits near the base of the cliff getting some ants that had started to climb to turn around. He was getting through the meat he had fast, fortunately the ants didn¡¯t seem to need much to be knocked out and other ants seemed happy to take any they hadn¡¯t finished. The last few pieces where practically thrown directly at the ants that weren¡¯t asleep or at a few of the injured ants that had been knocked down since Gar had started throwing the coated meat. Gar mopped up the last of the sap he had in the bucket with the last of the meat, there were no more moving ants he could see so he threw it as far along the path where he had seen the ants coming and going. Gar watched for a few minutes to make sure there were no more ants coming he would have much preferred to wait longer to check, however he was unsure of B3¡¯s condition and he had no idea how long the ants would be out, time was not on his side. He gathered the badgers and a new bucket of sap, taking the time to carry it all down the ladder. Setting off with bucket in one hand spear in the other the badgers spread out around him. Making his way round the base of his platform towards the Cenote walls where the ants and his waste pile were, the couple of minutes it took that the ants where out of site worried Gar. What if the ants were all waking up just as they got there? He needn¡¯t have worried the first ant they came to was one of the ones knocked down and injured, so was further out than the others, it was still out cold. Gar kept moving leaving a badger to finish it off then catch up; this repeated itself several more times as they continuously made their way to the main collection of ants. He saw them all laid out in front of him asleep and unmoving, even so they were not his focus, he lost all caution and ran to B3, the badger skeleton lay where it fell obviously having landed on its feet as all four legs where broken with a couple more cracks in its hips and ribs, Gar had the other badgers spread out around Gar as he inspected B3. B3 (Skeletal puppet badger) The skeleton of a badger animated by Gar through the use of the basic death magic spell skeletal puppet, improved by the self-taught arcana achievement, slightly smarter and tougher than normal. Uses: Puppet Quality: Great Rarity: Common Durability: 58/200 That fall had taken nearly three quarters of its durability it was useful information but didn¡¯t tell him what he could do about it. He activated mana site then tried casting skeletal puppet on B3 to no effect there was a flicker of movement in his mana then nothing, looking over B3 the mana stream connecting them seemed thinner than normal defiantly thinner than the ones to the others. Gar knew the skeletal puppets weren¡¯t living they didn¡¯t think or feel, it didn¡¯t matter to him though as they were all he had they were his life line, his hope, losing one so soon after getting them would crush him they were all that were keeping him going at this point as much as he had tried to avoid that he would be lying to himself to say otherwise. B3 seemed stable and unlikely to deteriorate, right there was not the time or place to treat it with the ants where still asleep close by. Carefully B3 was loaded into Gars backpack. Moving on Gar considered just going back up onto his platform he had B3 back and could just leave the ant to wake up. He hardened his mind-set if he let them wake up the ants would just go straight back to attacking him, they were a threat, while he had the perfect opportunity to minimise that threat he may not be bloodthirsty but he could not afford to be stupid. B1 and B2 where sent off to start eliminating the unconscious worker ants while Gar kept Bodger at his side. Before going to deal with ants Gar walked a bit along the path the ants had been taken, not far and still within easy site of the unconscious ants, then placed his sap bucket down, he hoped this would deal with any more ants that showed up. Then he started moving among the unconscious ants, he left the workers to the badgers, the soldiers where his, the badgers didn¡¯t have the equipment to get through the solider ants tough carapace. So Gar dealt with them, the most efficient method he found was shoving his spear into one of their eyes then leaning on it to drive it deeper until the creature died. While effective it was messy the ant¡¯s ichor/blood splashed everywhere when the spear was pulled out. His spear was slick with it coating a good section of the shaft and running down while he himself was covered in splatter. He killed eight soldiers while not bothering to count how many worker death messages he received particularly once he levelled up. ¡°Level up you are now level 4¡± ¡°As a gargoyle you gain 1 point to constitution, 1 point to strength and 1 point to perception along with 3 free attribute points per level up. You may also choose a skill to advance a level.¡± 28: Something dumb The last few ants taken care of were by where he had left the bucket. The bucket was knocked over and the sap spilled the two ants where practically laying in it. Remembering how simply touching the sap had made him feel numb Gar carefully stepped around the sap while having Bodger and B1 step in it to finish the ants. Just then another ant came scurrying along the path Bodger and B1 dashed for it Gar and B2 hung back, Bodger and B1 split to each side of the ant Bodger cutting in a bit closer. The ant turned to keep its mandibles pointed at Bodger, B1 took this opportunity to leap and slash at the ant its claws leaving a gash in the ants back. The ant span to face B1 as Bodger bit at a leg the ant tried to turn back but slowed until it went still, it wasn¡¯t dead no kill message, Gar saw the footprints in the sap, the ant was unconscious because of the sap on B1¡¯s claws. Bodger finished off the unconscious ant. ¡°You have killed a level 2 Mega-ra ant worker 1 experience awarded¡± What this did show was that he hadn¡¯t gotten all the ants he needed to deal with the nest then and there he knew earth ants laid lots of eggs, growing up fast, if he left them all his work would be for nothing as the ant would just be replaced and soon. He returned to the ladder leaving Bodger, B1 and B2 at the bottom he climbed up then carefully took B3 out of his bag, placing him in the shelter on the bed so he was out of the rain and safe. Next he grabbed another bucket of sap and climbed back down. They moved as before Gar in the middle the badgers around him, when they got back to the ants path Gar stopped and took a moment to have each badger dip its claws in the spilt sap and stick their face in it as best they could to coat their teeth. They then moved on, Gar didn¡¯t know how far until the source of the ants, his guess was he would find the ants at the series of caves by the river. They moved quickly not trying to be quiet any ants nearby would notice them from the smell of the sap even if they were silent. They dispatched two more workers before they came across something Gar hadn¡¯t expected the ground was wet not just from the still falling rain it was standing water everywhere, the river had obviously overflowed its banks. The water was up to his knees while the badgers where practically under water (not that it seemed to bother them) before he saw another ant, it was a solitary worker scurrying about on the cliff wall. Gar could see the whole series of caves he had noticed weeks ago all the ground level ones had water flowing into them while the worker ant was going in and out of one of the caves about five meters off the ground, it was carrying something out and dropping it. Gar and the badgers backed up along the path until they were no longer standing in water as Gar tries to work out a plan. Gar needed to lure out as many of the remaining ants as he could, he couldn¡¯t even approach the cave safely the closer he got on the ground the deeper the water got and with the deeper water came a stronger current. Gar might just have been able to withstand it, the badgers though most certainly wouldn¡¯t and even Gar wouldn¡¯t be able to fight in it. If he left the badgers behind he could climb along the cliff wall up to the cave, however doing so would leave him vulnerable to any ants that could move on the vertical surface as if it was level ground, he needed to pull them to flat dry ground to even have a chance. Gar went over everything he knew about the ants in his head: There were two types he had seen so far worker & solider, workers where smaller more agile and more numerous, soldiers where larger with thicker carapaces and could shoot acid. Soldiers where smarter than workers although neither type was particularly smart with both types being easily tricked. The ants seemed drawn to the slumbering vine sap and would disregard any caution or cooperation for it. It wasn¡¯t much to go on, unfortunately for Gar it was all he had so he had to make it work. Gar needed some more information he just needed a test subject, fortunately there was one that was potentially available. Gar spent a few minutes gathering fist sized rocks and loading them into his bag. With the bucket of sap in one hand and a rock in the other Gar instructed the badgers to wait at the water¡¯s edge while he waded back in. He got to about waist deep only to find the flow of the water was too strong for him to keep his balance on the slippery ground underneath. It forced him to back track out to where the water was only mid-thigh level, it was further away from the cliff wall with the ant cave than he would have liked yet he thought he could make it work. He dipped the rock in the bucket of sap then held it at the ready. When he was watching earlier the worker had been coming in and out of the nest every few minutes. So he waited until the ant was crawling along the wall, as it got further away from the cave and slightly closer to him that was when Gar took his chance. Throwing the sap covered stone with all he had directly at the ant, the stone flew faster and harder than anything Gar had ever thrown before, it seemed increased stats did have a marked difference although it hadn¡¯t helped his aim, the stone slammed a meter wide of the ant crashing into the cliff before dropping to be lost in the water below. Nether the less it got the ants attention, it was hard to tell with the things unmoving compound eyes and lack of neck movement where exactly the ant was focussing. Still Gar was sure the rock had gotten its attention, even better when it dropped the clump of whatever it had been carrying and moved too shove its face into where the stone had impacted. While it was distracted Gar took another rock from his bag dipped it in the sap and threw it, this time not worrying so much about strength to reach the distance and more focused on aim. It was a much better shot hitting in front of the ant a bit further round the cliff, the ant lifted its head from the first impact site before scurrying along to the next one. Like this Gar was able to lead the ant around the cliff and away from the cave, only once did he have to throw a second rock when the first was ignored after being thrown too far away. The ant scurried along following Gars trail; once he had it near dry ground he started bringing it down the wall. Things took a turn when they got near the end Gar was standing at the base of the cliff bucket of sap in hand just outside of the water, as the ant got overhead it was several meters up when it seemed to notice the bucket of sap. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. The ant just let go of the wall dropping straight down mandibles first pointing at Gar. Gar screamed throwing himself back not having expected such reckless behaviour. The ant hit the ground barely missing Gar, in its disorientation and before it could arrange itself Bodger B1 and B2 all piled on top of it pinning the creature to the ground. The ant still struggled and writhed the lightweight skeletal bodies not enough to stop its moves completely were still more than enough to stop it getting to its feet or going anywhere. What Gar needed to know was how the ants reacted in the water it was a major disadvantaged area for him although if it was the same or worse for the ants he may be able to turn it to his advantage. Gar approached the pinned ant, it snapped its mandibles at him, stepping to the side of it he placed a hand behind it and a hand holding at the base of its head, lifting it as the badgers got up until it was off the ground and held out at arm¡¯s length. With a few quick steps into the water Gar spun then threw the ant as far as he could into the deeper water. Gar had observe and mana sight active to make sure he could see exactly what happened to the ant. It hit the water with a splash then sank like a stone; Gar could see it flailing its legs in an attempt to move except the current had hold of it, the ant was swept away out of Gars site. In a little over a minute Gar received the message. ¡°You have killed a level 2 Mega-ra ant worker 1 experience awarded¡± Gar hadn¡¯t known if the death of the ant would count as his kill, he was glad it did as the message confirmed the ant had died and hadn¡¯t been able to get out anywhere. So it seemed the water was even more of a disadvantage to the ants than it was to him, a plan was coming together in his mind. Gar went back to his base to start setting things up, he put away his backpack gathered up his longest rope, refilled his bucket with sap, this was using a lot of his sap supply although as far as he was concerned it would be worth it even if he used it all up. He only sat down long enough to have a drink and eat some nuts and berries, he feared if he waited too long he would lose the courage to get this done. With one last check on B3, who was still in Gars bed, he went back to the ant cave. At the water¡¯s edge he stopped and tied one end of the rope around Bodger the other around his own waist, secured together he took the bucket of sap and started pouring it over Bodger he wanted a good layer coating Bodger. The bucket, his spear as well as B1 and B2 where then hidden a little way back the way they had come. Bodger balanced on his shoulder, slowly dripping sap down his arm, Gar waded into the water. Gar got as close as he could to the ants cave entrance while still being confident in his footing. He set himself as stable as he could uncoiled the rope and held it loosely while taking Bodger, who had curled into a tight ball, in his other hand. Gar took a moment to adjust his footing as he aimed then threw. Bodger sailed through the air the rope trailing out behind, Gar watched Bodger fly, the throw wasn¡¯t perfect Bodger landed much closer to the left wall than Gar would have liked, he was in the cave though. Seeing that Bodger had landed safely Gar dunked himself under the water quickly scrubbing off the sap that had run onto him making him feel slightly numb. When he had come up Bodger was no longer able to be seen having followed orders to go deeper into the cave, Gar could only wait and hope. Hope that the skeletal puppet was smart enough to understand the plan, hope that nothing went wrong, and hope that he hadn¡¯t just sent his first friend on this world to its death. Time ticked by Gar waited tense watching the cave entrance, he heard noise a lot of noise and it was getting louder. Then there was Bodger running it got to the edge and leapt, Gar was pulling in the rope before he even registered what followed Gar out of the cave. It was two ant soldiers as well as something different; Gar had been ready for this observe was active. ¡°Mega-ra ant queens guard level 7¡± 29: Queens guard All three ants fell as well seemingly having followed Bodger when he jumped. Bodger splashed down Gar felt a drag on the rope as the current pulled Bodger, the jerk of it was almost enough to pull Gar off his feet he managed to keep his balance, starting to walk backwards as he pulled in the rope. The three ants hit the water at practically the same time causing a massive splash of water that blocked them from Gars view. When it had settled down there was no sign of the soldiers not large enough to be above the water, Gar hoped the current had swept them away. The queen¡¯s guard was another story it was larger again than the soldier ants it stuck out above the water moving slowly towards Gar. Gar sped up as the water got shallower reeling in Bodger as he went. The water had washed of the sap from Bodger but that didn¡¯t seem to matter the queens guard was following them showing no sign of stopping, Gar got out of the water quickly dragged Bodger out as well. With deft fingers Gar untied the rope from Bodger throwing the end off to one side before untying the other end of the rope and throwing it off to the side, leaving the rope where it was Gar and Bodger hurried up the path to where he had left his spear retrieving his weapon gave Gar a confidence booster until he turned round and saw the massive ant bearing down on them. It slowed as it neared the edge of the water Gar splashed some sap on the ground in front of him from the bucket trying to get the ant to rush, this ant seemed to not only be bigger than the others it also seemed smarter or at least to have some self-control. It flicked its antennas in Gars direction Gar was sure it could sense the sap it didn¡¯t however rush forward it continued moving forward at its slow pace watching Gar and Bodger the whole time. staring into those big black eyes was terrifying they were soulless unblinking things Gar thought he could feel them boring into his mind. ¡°Now¡± Gar screamed. Triggering B1 and B2 to dart out from where they were hiding, on either side of the path, grabbed the rope in their mouth then ran back pulling the rope tight raising it off the ground, it worked like clockwork the rope raised as the ant stepped into it catching it part way up its leg. That¡¯s when things went wrong the ants leg kept going taking its step as if it hadn¡¯t even noticed the rope or two badger skeletons it was now dragging behind it. It took another step forward and the rope slid off its leg being left behind. Gar started backing up, he tried to keep calm the puddle of sap was still in front of it no ant was able to resist it yet he just had to wait. The ant got to the puddle of sap, lowered its head down, then waggling its antennae kept moving forwards. Gar was starting to realise how strong and smart this thing was and it was looking more and more like they were going to have to fight. B1 and B2 where back on their feet moving to keep up with the ant, Gar was making sure they were well clear of its back end, he didn¡¯t know for sure but suspected this ant could shoot acid like the soldiers. Gar waved his spear at the ant while having Bodger snap his jaws at his side trying to draw all the ants¡¯ attention to them. While doing so B1 and B2 went for its back legs they rushed in, B1 went for a swipe with its claws only to receive a kick from the leg before it could finish its swing, B2 had gone for a bite the ant had again retaliated with a kick which had unintentionally brought its leg into B2¡¯s jaws. Normally the pain of impact would have been enough to stop any response however B2¡¯s skeletal puppet nature meant it felt no pain it closed its jaws on the offered leg with an audible crunch, it then held on its jaws latched in place. Nothing else that had been done so far had seemed to have changed the ants approach, this for the first time did. Unlike what Gar thought would happen the queens guard sped up, ignoring the badger clamped on its leg, instead using the other five legs to run forwards straight at Gar. Gar dived to the side rolling before coming to his feet expecting to see a massive ant right beside him, he was mistaken, when he had jumped to the side Bodger had ran the other way. The ant had turned following Bodger. Gar realised the ant had never been following him, the entire time since it was in the cave it had been after Bodger, he could use that. Gar had Bodger start to run in wide circles around the ant, the ant was fast just not great at turning especially with B2 still latched onto one leg. Gar got up and had to start moving, with the ants turning constant its back end acid shots were going to become more of a potential threat pointing at anyone stood still. Gar followed the ant round as it turned, as they passed he had B1 join at his side they stuck to the ants¡¯ side just outside of its legs range. They had to do a full circle before they could get what Gar wanted, the bucket of sap, just because the ant was ignoring it didn¡¯t mean it couldn¡¯t be useful Gar dipped his spear in the bucket then had B1 do the same with its teeth, it was a little difficult doing it on the move but somehow they managed it. Done with it Gar got a bit farther away and put the bucket down before returning to his previous position. Prepared Gar didn¡¯t give himself time to doubt his plan, he had Bodger stop circling moments before he and B1 attacked the last two good legs on their side. The sudden stop meant the legs dug into the ground not giving them a chance to respond to the attacks, B1 bit down hard as Gar swung for the joint of the leg. With two badgers latched onto legs and Gar pulling back for another swing the far back end of the ant swivelled independently of the rest of its body, acting like a hose and splashed all three with acid. All three moved away looking to rub the acid off on the ground, only Gar was feeling the pain B1 and B2 still needed to get it off before it caused too much damage. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. The ant was unable to capitalise on its attack as its attention was rather violently drawn back to Bodger. During the minor distraction of the ant when it had aimed and shot its acid Bodger had jumped on the queens guards¡¯ mandibles, while fearsome weapons they were also large enough for a skeletal badger to walk along. Bodger had landed on the mandible then practically ran up the creatures face to savage one of its grapefruit sized eyes. Bodger had its head, specifically the mouth full of sharp teeth, inside the ants¡¯ eye. That was when the ant freaked out; its legs flailed spasmodically its mandibles snapped together, acid dribbled out the back of it, as it shook like a bucking bronco. Bodger was flung off. Gar and the whole team just stood back and watched, during one point in the ants flailing the leg B2 had savaged snapped off completely. That didn¡¯t slow the ant any if anything the flailing got worse. The minutes passed as Gar stood and watched, he no longer feared the creature he just felt pity for it he wanted to just put it out of its misery, unfortunately he had no safe way to do so. So instead he just stood and watched, time passed and pity turned to guilt, the ants may have started it but it wasn¡¯t this ant Gar had been the one to come into its home then attack it, make it suffer. As the movement slowed Gar was able to get a bit closer, bucket in hand, the ant was still flailing but weakening, to ease its suffering once as close as he dared. Gar threw the sap from the bucket into the ants face, slumbering vine sap entered both its mouth and injured eye, Gar had thought he would have to finish the creature of once it was out, that was unnecessary in the end the sap was enough to finish it. ¡°You have killed a level 7 Mega-ra ant queen¡¯s guard 23 experience awarded¡± Gar set his face into one of grim determination he was going to go finish this, he was tired and sore yet he could not stop now if he backed out of doing this now that ant had suffered and died for nothing, this had to be done for his survival he had to see it through. The rope was retied to the two of them then things got a bit messy he had thrown all the sap he had on him so Bodger had to roll around on the dead ants face to get covered in the sap again it was almost impossible for him not to get some ichor and mess from the destroyed eye as well. Bodger freshly coated was sat on Gars shoulder again as he waded off into the water. He got to approximately the same spot as last time then stopped, set his balance, aimed and threw. His battered body protested at the throw, Gar pushed through doing it anyway, again Bodger sailed through the air, a better shot this time landing almost central in the cave entrance, another dip for Gar to clean off as Bodger walked in. Gar was nervous again all his previous worries coming back only this time worse he had been given a hint as to what could be hiding in there with the queen¡¯s guard what if there were more guards what would he do if Bodger came out with two guards following this time, they had barely survived against one they had no hope against two. Also if there where queen¡¯s guards then what of the queen what sort of monster ant would she be? At that point Gar just stopped, stopped thinking clamped down on his worries and waited. He couldn¡¯t do anything now Bodger had already gone in he would just deal with whatever came later there was no choice. Gar stood wrestling down his emotions focussing on the cave entrance watching for Bodger¡¯s return, Gar waited, then kept waiting Gar could feel his connection to Bodger still strong so there was nothing else to do but to wait. Eventually Gar saw signs of movement, then it got closer and came into the light. It was Bodger walking out. Bodger got to the edge and stood in the mouth of the cave, it stopped and waited, there was nothing chasing no more ants. Gar had not expected this, he hadn¡¯t planned for it. He needed to check the cave for himself, Bodger could do a lot but in the end it was still only a skeletal puppet it was only as smart as the instructions given to it. Before he went anywhere near the cave he needed his spear, he was not going to enter that cave without a weapon. He started to back off letting out the rope as he went, he also had B1 and B2 pick up the spear between them and start carrying it towards him, they met in the middle Gar slipped his spear strap over his head so it was held on his back. He then made his way to the cliff wall before starting to edge round it he wanted to be as close as possible to the cave before he started climbing, it was easier to fight the current with the cliff to hold onto. Gar started to climb, glad of the practice he had done recently, as the rain slick rocks made it difficult. He took it slow making sure each grip and hold was secure before moving, between his increases in strength and endurance pulling himself up and keeping going was no problem he just had to make sure he didn¡¯t fall. Slowly and surly he made his way to the cave. He pulled himself into the mouth of the cave rolling over only to find himself looking up at Bodger with a pile of rope sat next to it, Bodger must have been pulling the rope in as he climbed, that explained why it hadn¡¯t been getting in his way or draping in the water. If he didn¡¯t know better he would almost say Bodger was smiling at him. 30: Final battle Gar pulled the spear off his back and started walking, Gar¡¯s dark vision let him see perfectly well, he had the still sap covered Bodger walking a little ways in front of him the tunnel was uneven, hard for Gar to walk on he managed though and they kept going. The tunnel went deeper into the cliff than Gar had expected, after a couple of minutes of walking the tunnel had narrowed. Gar also started noticing small tunnels about the size of a worker ants branching off every now and then. At each tunnel they would stop and Bodger would be sent down them just to make sure no ants ended up behind them. They needn¡¯t have worried for each tunnel had been empty, all of them dead ending not far in. So Gar and Bodger kept going down the main central tunnel, Gar flinching at each water droplet or small sound. After several minutes of cautious walking Gars dark vision stopped working everything around him showed up fine, even looking back he could see along the tunnel as usual before it faded to black, in front though was a pitch black darkness that just got closer and closer with each step. Taking one more step forwards Gar stared, the darkness in front of him seemed to writhe and ripple, it was creepy. Gar sent Bodger forwards to continue on despite the creepy darkness; Gar was going to see this through. Bodger walked forwards stepped right up to the wall of black, took the final step and bounce off. Bodger scurried back as the writhing intensified shaking the very ground Gar stood on. Gar knew he had messed up he tried to turn and run, tried to back up tried to get away in any shape or form. He couldn¡¯t it was all he could do to remain on his feet. The shaking stopped as the ant before him, for that is what it was; stopped moving and a head came into view. ¡°Mega-ra ant queen level 14¡± The ant was huge blocking the entire tunnel; the blackness he had been staring at had been her backside. The colossal creature was level 14 the highest thing he had ever seen. Despite him levelling up a few times recently it was still nearly four times his level, who knew how many ways it had to kill him. Gar stared into the ants face just as it stared straight back at him, the lack of light not bothering either of them. Gar stared wondering what the ant queen was thinking, those alien compound eyes and unmoving face gave nothing away it was impossible to tell. He stood still knowing attacking was futile and fearing running would start it chasing, so instead he stood and they stared at each other. As he stared he noticed things about this ant, its mandibles where much smaller than the soldiers or the guards, despite its larger body the mandibles where similar size to a workers. The head sat at equal head height as himself, Gar suspected it was holding it at that height on purpose. With a rigid carapace the face sat perfectly still even the eyes couldn¡¯t move compound eyes had no need to. The only movement the ant queen was making was little adjustments of its antenna back and forth up and down. The time dragged on as gar and the ant just stared at each other, at some point Gar had let the spear drop so it wasn¡¯t held threateningly pointed at the ant, it was just loosely held in one hand. Just when Gar was wondering if running might be worth a try, the ant started moving, it was a strange slow undulation, the ant wriggled and squirmed slowly starting to move backwards. Gar had no idea what was going on, the ant did not seem to be attacking so he just stood and waited. The ant¡¯s wiggles and undulations kept going and it kept moving backwards, soon there was enough room to see past it. The ant had used its body to block the entrance to a large cavern, the ant kept backing up so Gar took a few hesitant steps forwards into the entrance of the larger cave. This must have been the ants home it was open with what looked like the base of stalactites cut off near the floor, near the centre of the room was a hole that looked newly dug with a view of rushing water below. To one side not far from the queen was a pile of something they looked dirty and mouldy an off white colour, it then hit Gar what they were a pile of about a dozen eggs, that all seemed to have failed. Then there was the queen, there was finally enough room to see her completely. Her undulating wriggling movement finally made sense, she had no legs her abdomen was so large there was no way the legs would be able to lift her let alone walk even if she did have any. Gar realised she was nothing but a breeding machine she would need other ants to do everything for her; moving her, cleaning her, feeding her, hunt for her she could do none of it. Looking again Gar realised she wouldn¡¯t even be able to fit out of the entrance to this room, realising this Gar wondered where the rest of the colony was he was in the egg chambers with the queen ant, there should be ants everywhere he started to look more closely at everything looking for signs of the ants. The ants he had killed couldn¡¯t have been all of them could they? That was far too few for an ant colony; perhaps monster ants had smaller colonies? Gar didn¡¯t know but for some reason he doubted it. It didn¡¯t matter what the reason had been it seemed this queen was the last of her colony and without the colony to support her she would die. Gar looked at the giant ant and could no longer see her as a threat. She was going to die soon no matter what he did. Gar thought he would feel happiness or relief in knowing the threat to his life was taken care of, he didn¡¯t he felt remorse and regret in his actions of killing this colony he suspected that this colony was dyeing anyway, it had far too few members, that didn¡¯t change the fact that he was the cause of its end. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Gar took a few moments to examine his emotions, while he felt remorse; remorse for his actions, remorse for the colony¡¯s death. The colony had been a threat to him, one that had been actively attacking him. While he would not seek violence he would defend himself he had taken the best course of action available to him, he would just have to live with the consequences. The queen ant seemed to no longer be paying him any attention, the ant was laying stretched out the only movement its antenna and an almost rhythmic pulsing in its abdomen. Gar waited and watched, at some point Gar sat to wait. Underground in that cave Gar had no way to tell how much time passed, after fighting and the stress of the day Gar didn¡¯t mind sitting and waiting he didn¡¯t even know if he was waiting for something in particular or if anything was actually going to happen at all. The first Gar noticed of something having happened was that the queen had gone still the pulsing in the abdomen had stopped, but not only that even the queen¡¯s antennae had gone still. Gar was unsure what to do, had the queen fallen asleep was that it was the queen ignoring him, maybe he was giving the queen too much credit maybe she wasn¡¯t smart enough to think. For whatever reason Gar didn¡¯t think that was true, ever so slowly Gar started to approach the queen he got closer and closer, still there was no movement not so much as a twitch of the antenna. This was starting to freak Gar out a little, nothing should be that still even in sleep there should be some little movement, there was nothing. Gar was still hesitant to get right up close so spinning his spear around he gently prodded the queen with the butt of the shaft before jumping back, still no movement from the queen. Moving forwards Gar prodded again only this time harder, as Gar jumped back there was movement from the queen, her whole body seemed to slump her head dropping to the floor her body rolling slightly to the side. The queen had died. Gar was so confused the queen was dead, how? Why? It made no sense she had been alive not long ago and seemed healthy and lively. Gar didn¡¯t think a creature could just spontaneously die. It was as he stepped back taking the scene in as a whole that he noticed it, that something had changed. There was a white ball at the back of the queen. It took him a moment to put the pieces together; the queen had given her life to lay one more egg. Realising it was a living thing Gar activated observe. ¡°Mega-ra egg level N/A¡± He just stared at the newly laid egg wondered why the ant queen had done this, in front of him as well. Gar thought about just leaving the queen and all the ants where dead his job was finished he didn¡¯t need to do anything else he could just go back his day was done. The egg would die no more ants all is good or would it die could it hatch then restart the colony then he would be back where he started with a dangerous threat on his doorstep. So he should kill it, he had just been feeling sorry for the part he had played in ending the colony and with its last breath of a chance he is supposed to just snuff it out. Kill an unborn, unhatched, baby he wasn¡¯t sure that he could do that, Gar let out an exasperated scream. ¡°Aaaaaaahh¡± he screamed until he ran out of breath, Gars guilt, anger, fear, sadness, loneliness where all churning inside of him. He didn¡¯t have answers to questions like this he was barely keeping himself alive this was just one more thing on his plate, one more decision to make it was too much, he had thought he had been doing okay thought he had it under control this had just shown how fragile he was. He just wanted to be safe to be surrounded by friends and family to enjoy his life. He had just wanted a bit of adventure to get away from the drudgery of his daily life something new something different he hadn¡¯t expected, hadn¡¯t wanted, this. Gar felt stupid, was this really something to be breaking down over, he supposed it didn¡¯t matter it was happening he couldn¡¯t stop it. He fell to his knees in front of the egg tears streaming down his face as he just let go of his emotions stopped trying to be strong stopped trying to hold it in. Gar knelt and just let it all out he cried and sobbed and screamed he did it until there was nothing left to come out. Then he just knelt and stared at the egg that had started all this and had hardly anything to do with it. Gar reached forward and touched the egg. He just had time to register how soft it felt before the brightest fanciest message popped up in his vision, it felt like it was shining in his face, it had fancy scroll work borders in blue white and gold ¡°You have found a being who¡¯s soul resonates with your own would you like to form a familial bond¡± ¡°Yes or No¡± Here he went again his emotions thrown for another loop; he had nothing left in him to give so he just held still hand still on the egg. He could almost feel the creature inside being asked the same question this was a bond of equals it could not be forced on either side. Gar did feel when the creature accepted it almost felt like someone had twanged a string drawn taught between them. It was enough to drive Gar back into action, he did not have the energy or the thought to reason out a response he just went purely on what he felt and hit yes. Gar had expected, lights, noise, messages, there was none of that, there was just another deep twanging of the cord between them that Gar could feel in a place that felt like both his centre and the all-encompassing whole. Then it was done Gar just knew he and this little egg where bonded, not just for life but for whatever was after that as well. Gar spent a bit of time just exploring the bond, it wasn¡¯t something he could really see or feel whilst at the same time he could always tell it was there. Gar got to his feet, it was time to leave gently he picked up the egg cradling it in one arm with his spear in the other, walking out with Bodger following at his heels. 31: What next When he got to the entrance he had another problem to deal with, he couldn¡¯t climb while holding the egg. He had no bag to carry the egg so he briefly considered having Bodger hold it in its mouth but a second look at the sharp pointed teeth in Badger¡¯s mouth and he rethought that idea. Though it did make him consider Bodger for a second, he had been thinking of it as an animal not a skeleton. Gar slid the egg inside Bodger¡¯s rib cage before using the rope to secure Bodger, with its head down, on to his back. While this would be cruel to do to an animal he needed to remember Bodger was just a skeletal puppet it didn¡¯t feel or think. The climb down was uneventful and Gar untied Bodger as he waded the last few meters out of the water. Reunited with B1 and B2 Gar started the walk back to base, it was only during the walk that he noticed how late I was he had gotten. So used to his dark vision in the blackness of the cave he hadn¡¯t even noticed it was the middle of the night. He thought he should be planning out what his next step would be as he walked; for the most part he was just too tired he walked in a mindless haze, trusting the badgers to alert him if anything was about. After getting back to base and several trips up and down the ladder to get all the badgers up, Gar rescued the egg from Bodger¡¯s ribcage and set it down in his shelter next to B3. The last thing he did before sleep took him was to do his best to dry off, as it had been raining all day and after numerous trips wading in and out of the water Gar was soaking wet. While he didn¡¯t manage fully dry he was at least no longer dripping when he lay down to sleep. ¡°New stats added to status: +1 agility¡± Gar awoke late in the morning still feeling drained from the previous day both physically and emotionally. He was bruised, scrapped and covered with acid burns so all he wanted to do was to take the day to rest, recover and try to sort out his emotions. Unfortunately he wasn¡¯t that lucky there where things that needed dealing with and they needed dealing with as soon as possible, well as soon as possible after he had some breakfast they could wait that long. The ant bodies needed dealing with he couldn¡¯t just leave them to rot where they were or they would just bring more creatures sniffing around looking for an easy meal. His old dumping pile also needed dealing with, it had attracted one danger he wasn¡¯t about to leave it to attract more. He was short on food and as it was still raining he figured he should check on the flooding, he needed to know if it was going to be a problem. With so much to do even if he could have made time Gar ended up eating a few nuts and berries on the move for breakfast. He would deal with the ants first, as there was a chance that they might solve his food shortage as well. Taking Bodger and B2 with him he left B3 in his shelter to recuperate while B1 waited at the top of the cliff over the dump pile, where he also hung down a rope. Once down his ladder as he made his way round Gar grabbed up ant bodies that they passed, fortunately for him none had strayed too far from his waste pile. Dumping the bodies next to the waste pile he had Bodger and B2 run off to start dragging the worker ant bodies to his new pile while he dealt with the larger solider ant bodies carrying them to pile with the rest. Gar was really feeling his wounds by the time they only had one body left. The queen¡¯s guard, the large ant was in ankle deep water when they got to it. It seemed the flooding had continued as Gar was sure it was dry ground when he had killed the ant. Between Gar pushing and the badgers pulling they got the bulky ant back to the pile. Gar stared down the path towards the cave that held the body of the ant queen, should he try to get that body as well? He decided it was far enough away it wouldn¡¯t cause a problem, he would let that cave be her tomb. Taking the end of the hanging rope Gar started tying it round an ant worker. It took some trial and error and a level in Knot-working. ¡°Knot-working level up knot-working level 3¡± Until eventually he was able to get what he was after, a knot that held the ant worker securely but was able to be undone by one of the badgers pulling on the loose end. With the first worker secured Gar had B1 start hauling, soon the ant was up and over the edge onto Gars ledge. Moments later the rope was dropped down and so it went as the ants got hauled up. When the workers where all done Gar had to tie B2 onto the rope and send it up. Between B1 and B2 they were able to bring up the solders in a similar fashion. When it was only the queen¡¯s guard left Gar sent Bodger up in the hopes that the three badgers would be able to pull up the body, it was no such luck. Gar was nervous walking back alone it was the first time since he had made Bodger that he had gone anywhere alone and he did not like it. Once he was up with the badgers his added strength to the rope was enough to bring the body up. With all the bodies up on his platform and out of reach of most scavengers Gar figured it was safe to leave them for a bit while he got on with other tasks. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Another trip down the ladder bringing the three healthy badgers with him, although for the next job he also brought his sled and shovel with him. His waste pile needed dealing with he couldn¡¯t be lazy with these things like he had been it was, literally a matter of his survival who knew what it would attract next time if he left it. Gars first thought had been to bury it but the dirt layer on his ledge and down below didn¡¯t go very deep before it hit solid rock, he wasn¡¯t sure he could bury it deep enough. If it wasn¡¯t for the rain that had soaked everything and made a fire nearly impossible he might have tried burning it. With these options out he figured his best option was to get it as far away from himself as possible. To that end Gar started shovelling the pile of rotten smelly mess onto his sled. Once the sled was fully laden Gar dragged it along the path he had travelled the previous day towards the ants cave. He dragged the sled as deep into the water as he could then started shovelling the mess off and throwing it into the deeper water and stronger current. It took only two trips to clear the entire pile, much of it having been eaten by the ants. Anyhow he suspected that by the time he had finished harvesting the ants he would have much more to deal with. Gar took a few moments to wash himself clean in the water after the messy task before getting on with his to do list. Leaving the shovel and sled at the base of his ladder Gar set off in the other direction heading towards the axen trees, he wanted to stock up on nuts and pods. Spear in hand and three skeletal badgers around him he made his way through the forest, stepping lightly despite the noise the skeletons made. Making it to the axen trees Gar started filling his backpack, with his worries about the rain and the rising water level he wanted to gather plenty of supplies. He took a looping route back to base going towards the river in the hopes of gathering some thorn berries. The river was flowing fast and the water level was high having swollen the banks in places taking out many thorn berry bushes, it was only due too there sheer numbers in the area that Gar was able to find enough out of the water to fill one of his sacks. With his food supply in a much better situation Gar headed back to his ledge. As he climbed the ladder up he had thoughts of a rest in mind, a break as much of what he absolutely needed to do was done. That was until he got to the top of his ladder and saw the piles of bodies, he had pushed the thought of them so far to the back of his mind he had practically forgotten about them. He couldn¡¯t leave them they needed dealing with or else they were going to rot and that would bring in insects and disease none of which he was in any state to deal with. Storing his new food supplies in his shelter out of the rain, he picked up his big knife and his small conrex claw knife before dragging an ant worker over to the large flat rock that he used for butchery. Staring at the body he tried to work out where to start, it was very different to anything he had taken apart before. Its exoskeleton posed numerous problems the word exoskeleton sparked an idea in Gars mind; perhaps he could simply use the bodies as they were. So Gar stood back and cast skeletal puppet on the Mega-ra ant workers body, then he waited. Nothing happened, he flicked on mana sight to confirm and there was no movement in his mana besides the normal and nothing connected to the ant. Gar figured he would have to remove the non-skeletal parts before the spell would work, he would try again later. It hadn¡¯t hurt to try. To take the ant apart Gar realised the first step would have to be to separate the body parts at the joints. Using his large knife he was able to remove the legs where they joined the thorax, then off with the antenna before finally separating the head and abdomen from the thorax. The next step wasn¡¯t so obvious, Gar decided to start with the abdomen it seemed to be essentially a solid piece with one opening where he had separated it from the thorax. He started by scooping everything out with his knife using inspect on it as he did so to make sure he missed nothing of import. He eventually gave up with the knife and resorted to scooping it out with his fingers, it was messier but the work went much easier and the organs he found where less likely to get damaged in the process. Inspect gave no results on anything he scooped out and Gar did not know enough to be able to identify any of it himself. With the abdomen scooped out he did get an inspect result on the exoskeleton. Mega-ra ant worker carapace The exoskeleton of a meg-ra ant worker a light weight but strong material. Has an interesting property when heated. Uses: alchemy, smithing Value: ???? Quality: good Rarity: frequent Durability: 180/180 Defiantly an interesting material Gar wanted to experiment with it but when he got the rest of this body cleaned out he had plans for the skeleton. Looking at the pile of slop on the ground none of it looked like edible meat and while it may have been he wasn¡¯t willing to take that risk he would dispose of all of it. 32: Ant harvest The thorax proceeded much the same way with Gar not bothering to start with the knife and just going in with his hands the points of his fingers more than enough to sever and separate from the exoskeleton. ¡°Butchery levelled up butchery level 3¡± The thorax did produce one object of interest, a small hard stone near the centre of its body. Gar gave it a quick inspect upon puling it out. Earthen mana core A small mana core filled with earth mana, the centre of a mana creature and what allows them to function beyond normal biological means. Uses: endless Value: ???? Quality: fine Rarity: common Durability: ???? Leaving the head until last Gar moved onto the legs, they were split at the joints into three separate parts all essentially tubes of carapace. Gar had to resort to using a stick then flushing it with water to remove the insides of the legs. The head was put together slightly differently it was made up of two pieces of carapace the top overlapping the bottom part. By running his small knife between this overlap he was able to pull the two pieces apart, dumping a wet mass in his lap during the process. He thought he could see the ant¡¯s brain in amongst the goop, it was particularly small. Working slowly Gar was able to remove the ant¡¯s eyes whole. Mega-ra ant worker eye The eye of a mega-ra ant worker Uses: alchemy, witchcraft Value: ???? Quality: good Rarity: frequent Durability: 10/10 It seemed that while delicate the eyes did have some use so they were put to one side. The final pieces to clean up where the workers mandibles which turned out to be solid pieces of carapace not requiring more work. With them done Gar had the whole carapace cleaned and ready, it was time to try again. Laying the pieces of carapace in a pile Gar cast skeletal puppet and waited. Again nothing happened, Gar didn¡¯t understand why wasn¡¯t it working? His only conclusion he could come to was that the ant¡¯s exoskeleton carapace didn¡¯t count as a skeleton so the spell didn¡¯t work. It was frustrating as it had taken a lot of work to get it to this stage and he had already been seeing himself surrounded by an army of puppet ants protecting him from all attackers. Looking at the pile of ant workers then at the pile of loot (if you could call it that) he had gotten from the first one, he was unsure if it was worth the effort. When he remembered an ability he had all but forgotten about, grotesque his gargoyle racial ability. Like with his skills he just knew how to use it even though he wasn¡¯t exactly sure what it did, he just knew he needed a body to use it on. Before he had needed to eat what he had killed, the pile of ants represented a new opportunity. Selecting another worker body at random Gar activated the ability for the first time he held his hand against the body and waited. The body crumbled to dust which in turn crumbled and disappeared while Gar received a simple message. ¡°1/22 mega-ra ant workers¡± A little disappointing but helpful for clean-up, seeing no reason to stop there with a surplus of bodies in front of him Gar moved to the next one and went again. ¡°2/22 mega-ra ant workers¡± ¡­.. ¡°21/22 mega-ra ant workers¡± Gar hesitated before the last one and then plunged forwards. ¡°22/22 mega-ra ant workers¡± Gar didn¡¯t register the message or the disappearance of the body. His face hurt, it felt like something was splitting his cheeks open while they pushed rods out of his face from the inside. He couldn¡¯t move he couldn¡¯t scream he was locked in place as his face ripped itself apart. Gar could do nothing but accept the pain so he did for the few seconds it took before it ended and he gained the message. ¡°You have been granted the mandibles of a mega-ra worker ant¡± ¡°New skill acquired bite level 1¡± Gars hands shot to his face and felt. He had a new set of mandibles coming out on either side of his mouth, he was horrified. He had never considered himself to be a particularly vain person but now he was just undeniably ugly. The gargoyle face was bad enough, with a set of insect mandibles just sticking out his face he would truly look like a monster. Just making it even harder to join with any people he found. Gar looked and tried, finding no way to undo the transformation it seemed he was stuck with it. Gar just pushed it all down he couldn¡¯t deal with it yet he still had things to do. He looked at the pile of worker bodies he had used half of them, he did not want to use grotesque ever again let alone on more of these ants, he didn¡¯t want to make it worse. Even so he didn¡¯t know what would happen if he did it again with the same creatures or even if he could do, so this was a rare opportunity to find out. He didn¡¯t want to he had no plans to use the stupid ability ever again, why would anyone want random creature parts attached to them? Even so he tried it once more. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°1/44 mega-ra ant workers¡± Same as before the body crumbled and disappeared. Gar was almost relived that he wouldn¡¯t have enough ant bodies to get him a second part it meant there was no decision about whether he should or not. Gar used the ability on enough workers to leave him with only ten ant worker bodies left. ¡°13/44 mega-ra ant workers¡± It was simply a convenient way to clean up the bodies; another ten to butcher would be more than enough parts for him to experiment with. The ten remaining ant workers took the rest of the day to finish butchering, leaving him with a pile of carapace, eleven earthen mana stones and seventeen ant eyes, a few had been lost in the fighting and the extraction process. As much as he needed to get the rest of the ants dealt with Gar was not going to work through the dark wet night. Rinsing himself off with a bucket of water he crawled into his shelter and tried to get dry for the first time that day. He sat on his bed while eating a few nuts and pods, it was a poor dinner and Gar knew it but it was all he had and would fill his belly. He looked over to where B3 still laid at the end of his bed and felt badly for not paying it any attention, he would fix that right away. He crawled over so he was sat right next to B3, he could tell that the damage wasn¡¯t as bad as when it had first happened the breaks looking smaller and the bones where all aligned correctly. He used inspect to check. B3 (skeletal puppet badger) The skeleton of a badger animated by Gar through the use of the basic death magic spell skeletal puppet, improved by self-taught arcana achievement, slightly smarter and tougher than normal Uses: puppet Value: ???? Quality: great Rarity: common Durability: 82/200 ¡°Inspect levelled up inspect level 4¡± Gar brushed past the inspect notification focusing on its results B3¡¯s durability had increased, although it appeared it was a slow process. Gar wanted a way to speed the process up, he was certain that if there was a way it would involve mana so he activated mana site. Mana sight on revealed much that he missed before, the grey glow of death mana in B3 was weaker than that in the other badgers, the areas around the damage were slightly brighter while still not the same as the mana in Bodger, for example. To Gar this suggested that the death mana was healing the damage, there simply wasn¡¯t enough of it to do it any faster. This felt to Gar like something he could help with, flipping his vision to his internal mana core he took a hold on some of the mana inside his core then moved it out through the hole for death mana. As it passed through the mana changed it became death mana, Gar wasn¡¯t sure how he knew it would do that he just did, perhaps his death magic skill. Once he had it outside his core he found the stream of cycling mana connecting him to B3 and pushed the extra death mana into it. He both saw and felt as the extra mana travelled along the connection, it hit B3 like a wave travelling through and pooling at damage sites. Gar kept the flow of extra death mana up, able to physically see the damage reducing as cracks healed. After a couple of minutes Gar cut the flow as he was feeling light headed and his mana core was considerably emptier. Bringing up his mana pool numbers he was down to 21/82, he had used nearly three quarters of his total mana pool. Gar was realising his skills were much more flexible in what they could do than he knew. With a thought he inspected B3 again reducing the results to just the durability. ¡°Durability 143/200¡± It seemed each point of mana that he used increased the durability by one, that was useful one more session once his mana pool was full and he would have B3 fully repaired. Morning was soon enough for that though so Gar lay down to sleep. // Day 33// Gar rose with the sun checked, his mana pool was full and started another round of repair on B3. B3 had recovered a few points of durability overnight so it only took fifty-four mana points to bring it up to full. This also gave Gar an unexpected message. ¡°Death magic levelled up death magic level 5¡± Swiftly followed by a new kind of message ¡°You have raised a magic skill to level 5 (death magic) please pick a new spell¡± ¡°Death bolt or rot¡± This completely shocked Gar he hadn¡¯t expected to just be given a new spell, after accidentally getting his first spell he had expected it to be a long time before he worked out another. He turned his attention to his options, he was given no description so could only guess what each spell would do based on its name. Death bolt sounded like an RPG staple, a bolt of mana of a certain type in this case death shot out to cause direct damage. Assuming he was correct it would be a good option to give some long range damage. Rot was a bit more difficult at a guess Gar would say it was probably a damage over time spell, potentially with some additional utility uses. Although it would not be great for hunting as it is liable to make the meat inedible. With no real information besides assumptions and their name Gar picked rot. ¡°New spell acquired Rot level 1¡± Eager to use his new spell but with his mana low from healing B3 Gar decided to distract himself with work. The first thing that came to mind dealing with the remaining ant bodies, he had ten ant solders and the queen¡¯s guard. Working on the solders first they came apart in much the same way as the workers segmented at the joints then scooped out from the inside. The only problem was the acid gland in the solider ant¡¯s abdomen, which he found when he burst the first one over his hand while scooping out. From then he went much slower and more carefully to prevent any more surprises. From the solider he was able to collect a large pile of carapace. Mega-ra ant solider carapace The exoskeleton of a mega-ra ant solider, thicker and stronger than that of the worker it is still a very light weight and durable material. Has interesting property¡¯s when heated. Uses: alchemy, smithing Value: ???? Quality: good Rarity: frequent Durability: 220 Nine acid glands, a fist sized sack with a nozzle that squirts acid when the sack was squeezed. Mega-ra and solider acid gland A gland that produces a concentrated formic acid Uses: weapon, alchemy, cooking Value: ???? Quality: standard Rarity: common Durability: 20/20 He had gotten ten more earthen mana cores that inspected the same as the ones from the workers despite being larger. The solders eyes did not seem to register as anything useful which is something Gar wished he had known before getting arm deep in ant innards to remove one carefully. The final thing he got where ten pairs of solider ant mandibles Mega-ra ant solider mandible For an ant their mandibles are their hands, there tools, even their weapons even more so for the soldiers Uses: tool, weapon, craft Value: ???? Quality: good Rarity: common Durability: 220/220 33: Butchered guard With the soldiers done Gar looked towards the queen¡¯s guard it was the last ant to butcher, he would deal with that next. However first his mana pool was full it was time to test his new spell. He already had a target in mind; the pile of innards from cleaning out the ants it was quite large after the workers and the soldiers. He kept the numbers for his mana pool in view and cast the spell for the first time. It was rather simple no hand movements no words just think about the target and activate. He saw his mana go down by five the spell had activated. At first there was no sign of anything happening in the pile of offal, then after about thirty seconds or so it started to smell something awful and collapsed in on itself. Gar cast the spell again this time there was visible rot on the pile, he kept casting the spell every thirty seconds or so. After about ten casts the rather large pile of ant innards was reduced to a small mound of basically dirt, it was all picked up in less than a shovel full and flung off into the woods. He would have to wait and see how the spell did in battle, as far as Gar was concerned though that didn¡¯t matter it dealt with one of his major problems, dealing with waste in a permanent and safe way without requiring lots of work to haul it away. With his mana reduced it was time to stop playing with his new spell and get back to work. The queens guard ant came apart differently to the other ants, instead of body sections being one piece the much larger queens guard was segmented up into carapace plates that overlapped across its body creating a much thicker armour. Each of the segments required his small knife slipping between the plates and run all the way round before they could be peeled off. The whole process took nearly as long as butchering all the soldiers put together. ¡°Butchery levelled up butchery level 4¡± Once done he used rot on the waste until it was gone before turning to his pile of loot. Mega-ra ant queens guard acid gland A gland that produces a highly concentrated formic acid. Uses: alchemy, cooking, weapon Value: ???? Quality: fine Rarity: uncommon Durability: 25/25 Mega-ra ant queens guard eye The eye of a mega-ra ant queens guard. Uses: alchemy, witchcraft Value: ???? Quality: fine Rarity: uncommon Durability: 10/10 Mega-ra ant queens guard¡¯s carapace The exoskeleton of a mega-ra ant queens guard; denser than that of a solider it can stand up to strong strikes. Has interesting property¡¯s when heated. Uses: smithing, alchemy, crafting Value: ???? Quality: fine Rarity: uncommon Durability: 250/250 Mega-ra ant queens guard mandibles For many ants the mandibles are a hand and tools for the queen¡¯s guard they are only one thing a weapon Uses: weapon, smithing, crafting Value: ???? Quality: fine Rarity: uncommon Durability: 250/250 He also received another earthen mana core which produced the same inspection results despite being bigger again than the soldier¡¯s ones. The final thing that Gar collected was the hairs of the antenna, he had very nearly missed them but a hair came off as he was handling the antenna and as he had been with everything that came out of the ant he cast inspect on it on reflex not really expecting any results. Mega-ra ant queens guard antenna hair You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Very sensitive hairs that receive and relay many sources of information. Uses: alchemy, crafting, thaumaturgy Value: ???? Quality: fine Rarity: unusual Durability: 3/3 They were an unusual item that he had absolutely no idea how to use or even what to use them for, all he did know is they had the highest rarity of anything he had found so hoped they had some value, he scrapped them off and used one of the worker abdomen carapace sections as a bowl to hold them in. With the ants remains finally dealt with Gar sat in his shelter and ate, while he planned. He needed to focus on getting out of this place the water level was rising and it was still raining he had been taking it at a relaxed pace, no more. He needed to focus. He realised there were three possibilities to getting out. One to climb, though simple sounding it was still a huge risk. Two explore the caves try to find a route up to the surface. Three explore the cenote he was in, it was so large he hadn¡¯t even seen half of it despite living there for over a month. The part of Gar that wanted adventure that wanted excitement, the part that had lead him to accepting the invitation to come here in the first place wanted to take option two or three he was curious and wanted to find out what was out there. A part of him that had grown in recent weeks from the pain, the fear, the loneliness just wanted to take the simple direct route option one. Climbing out had one huge advantage if he could make the climb he was out, exploring he could do everything perfectly and he could still be trapped there might not be another way out. Gar lost the rest of the day in thought it started with his way out which led his mind into the jumbled mess that was his emotions. He knew he was messed up, he was scared all the time, he was making decisions that didn¡¯t seem like they came from him, he was pushing things down and squishing them just to keep moving. Unconsciously he found himself cradling the ant egg just taking time to unpack everything to feel his emotions and let them go. He was still a mess, still a jumble of things he didn¡¯t understand a single afternoon of thought was not going to fix everything it barely fixed anything. What it was though was a start the beginning of a long road he didn¡¯t feel better per-say by the end, what he did feel was more like himself more like he knew who that was. With the egg on his chest he just lay back on his bed staring up at the celling and listened to the sound of the rain, as he fell asleep. When he got up before having any breakfast Gar started in on something he had tried to set as a routine before, climbing practice. The night before he hadn¡¯t really decided what he was going to do he had to be practical and climbing out would be his most guaranteed way out so he would continue to work towards that. However he would not just run away, not let fear rule him he wanted adventure. He might never come back to this place so he would make time to explore it while he could, not too long and it wouldn¡¯t be his focus but he wasn¡¯t going to miss out on this opportunity. The climbing was hard the rain had soaked the walls making grips slipperier and everything harder, fortunately Gars strength and endurance where much higher than when he arrived there. These would most likely be similar condition in the actual climb so it was best to practice in them, he kept at it until he got the awaited message. ¡°Climb levelled up climb level 4¡± He wouldn¡¯t be able to level it every day so while it was in the low numbers he would make the most of it. He kept climbing until he could feel the burn in his arms and legs and his stamina was low. With the climbing done he grabbed a breakfast of nuts and berries as he started working on his rope. He had the initial stages of the fibres twisted together into one long strand for the next step he folded it over and found the middle, which took long enough in itself due to the length of it. Then once at the middle he started twisting the two sides together he kept twisting from the middle until the rope kinked over. Then he kept going keeping everything twisted and tight, it was slow progress but well worth it as each twist greatly thickened the rope making it much stronger. Gar kept twisting all day he had intended to stop for some lunch then do something different, but found stopping wasn¡¯t really an option as the rope would unravel. He needed to finish it so he could tie off the ends so that is what he did he kept going grabbing berries or nuts when he had a hand free and was hungry. When the length was starting to become too much Gar had Bodger take the end in its mouth and carefully looping the rope between its teeth then close its jaws so the rope couldn¡¯t come off. Then he had Bodger move away to pull the rope tight. When Bodger ran out of room to pull the rope in a straight line Gar used B1 as a post to pass the rope round to change the direction, then again round a tree at the other end of his platform. After a couple of times round like that Gar had to be the one moving as he twisted more rope together to rap it round B1 and the tree to keep it tight. Gars fingers where sore from the constant twisting of the rough fibres, even so he still kept going late into the night. The moon was high in the sky by the time he was finally done. He knotted both ends then he was finally able to stop. He inspected his new rope for it was finally thick enough to actually be called a rope and not just a string, it looked good. He held a section and gave it a pull, it was strong probably strong enough to hold his weight he felt the slight give in it though and wasn¡¯t happy with it. If he was going to trust his life to it probably wasn¡¯t good enough, he would twist it again one more time just to make sure. He unwound the rope from B1 and the tree coiling it as he went bringing it into his shelter out of the rain. That night he slept trying to forget about the ache in his fingers. Gar got up and again before breakfast started climbing, trying to build it in to a new routine. He went at it hard trying to move faster and perform harder moves all in an attempt to push his skill up a level faster. Instead all he got was bruising from the falls. He was sore and breathing heavy by the time he called it quits for the day, without a skill level up. He had known he wouldn¡¯t be able to keep getting a level each time he climbed; it just disappointed him because he had hoped to get a few more before it took multiple days. He was tempted to spend the day trying to raise his climb skill level as much as he could. He got on with breakfast he was already tired from climbing and knew himself well enough to know he would get frustrated with the slow progress and would push himself into riskier and riskier situations as he got more and more tired until he got himself seriously injured or killed, and out here in the wilds they were basically the same thing. He was planning out what he would need for the day as he ate some breakfast. As he had spent the entire previous day rope making he would spend the day exploring. Given the rain still pouring outside his shelter and his desire to not spend another entire day soaking wet Gar was going to explore the caves a bit more. With the badgers by his side he was more confident to press further into the caves, he wouldn¡¯t be alone and the badgers could still fight effectively even in the tight confines of the caves. He would need his spear for the larger caverns, as well as a knife in case he had to fight in tighter spaces and his backpack to carry what he needed and anything he found, finally some rope he wasn¡¯t sure what for yet he just felt that when exploring caves rope was appropriate. Wrapping up his meal he gathered what he would need, again commiserating his lack of a sheaf for the knife as he tucked it into his waist band. 34: Tunnles He moved the rocks from in front of the little cave entrance on his platform and stood back listening for a minute trying to hear if anything was coming. If the noise of moving the rocks had attracted any attention he wanted to know, he doubted it but had already decided if he was going to do this he would take it slow and always err on the side of caution. Once he was happy there was nothing about to come out he sent the badgers in ahead of him. It was a slow crawl through the tunnel, the main reason being that the skeletal badgers needed to move slowly or the noise would be too much drawing all sorts of unwanted attention. When they came to the end of the narrow tunnel Gar realised he had gotten the ordering wrong. With the four badgers in front of him he couldn¡¯t see out to assess the larger cave there was also no room to pass the badgers and get closer. he considered just having the badgers go out into the larger cave to clear his view, with the word caution still in his mind Gar took the few minutes to back right the way out. The second time he sent Bodger in front keeping the other three badgers behind him. Another slow crawl along the tunnel before he was back at the entrance to the cavern, with only Bodger in front of him and Bodger was lying as close to the ground as it could. Gar could see into the cavern as far as his dark vision allowed. He was feeling a little impatient after his double trip to get there, he wanted to just go out and keep moving, and still he waited and he watched only moving once he was sure that it was clear. He sent Bodger out first then he crawled out after; he didn¡¯t stand staying crouched low as the other badgers followed him out. With some more room to look about Gar could see a shape moving just outside his dark visions range off to his far right. Gar slowly shuffled forwards just enough, he didn¡¯t have to move far to bring the creature into range of his dark vision. With it in site observe worked on it. ¡°Cave snail level 5¡± It was the same kind of snail as he had seen in that cave before orange skin, standing nearly as tall as Gar was and twice that in length, a large brown shell on its back. Seeing no need to tango with the locals Gar decided his group would head to the left, they would follow the wall round. Gar was about to set off when he remembered something he had almost forgotten he needed to mark his exit. He pulled the end of the rope out of his bag and cut a small section off then he placed it to one side in the entrance to the tunnel back to his base then trapped the end under a stone, it should remain undisturbed not drawing any attention while allowing him to identify his exit easily enough. That taken care of Gar started moving to his left following the walls round. He kept Bodger a few paces in front with B1 a few paces behind, B2 and B3 spread out to his right keeping the wall tight on his left. He moved slowly to keep the noise of the badgers down stopping when snails came close. The snails all seemed to either not notice him or they were just ignoring him, Gar was perfectly happy with either case. He was startled once when he failed to notice one of the snails until it was almost in touching distance. It was coming straight down the wall Gar had his whole group stop perfectly still as the snail passed just in front of Bodger seemingly not fussed by them at all. He continued round the large cave until he reached back where he had started, he had passed by three tunnels off from this cavern other than his original entrance. Two of the three tunnels seemed to angle down while the third angled upwards although between the limits of his dark vision and the twisting of the tunnels he couldn¡¯t see particularly far into any of them and with none of the floors in this place being particularly level he wasn¡¯t sure how much difference what he could see would make. Despite all that with no better reason to pick one tunnel over the others Gar headed back round to the tunnel that had a slight upwards angle, he might just get lucky. Coming to the entrance to the correct tunnel he only had to crouch slightly as he moved into it. The tunnel was much wider than it was tall at about four meters across Gar rearranged his groups formation to better work for this tunnel. While he remained in the centre he had Bodger stay behind him while B1, B2 and B3 moved a few paces in front of him then spread out in a line across the tunnel, like this they continued on into the darkness. Even after a couple of minutes walking the floor was still angling upwards ever so slightly. Gar could feel the smallest spark of hope in his chest he wasn¡¯t going to let it catch into a fire on something as small as a few minutes of walking up a slight incline, he was still too fragile to deal with starting a fire of hope only to have it extinguished. He pushed thoughts of escape and the surface from his mind this was a journey for adventure and exploration that is what he would focus on. The tunnel he was traveling along took twists and turns while remaining singular with no junctions or side tunnels. The walls where stone that shifted between browns and greys as he travelled, smooth under Gars palm while slightly damp when he move closer to the wall to touch it. The only thing breaking up the monotony of the tunnel was the occasional stalactite most of which reached all the way to the floor such that he had to go around them. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Gar had slowly sped his group up from the slow crawl of a walk they had been doing to what could be considered a normal walking pace. The lack of any signs of life beyond regular insects since he left the cave with the giant snails and the seemingly endless tunnel made this reduction in caution a necessary and relatively safe move. Gar kept walking he was further away from his base at that point than he had been at any point since he arrived in this world, still he kept going. Eventually the tunnel split the left side curved off while the right continued on straight. In the tunnel to the left the roof got lower as it went so Gar decided to follow that one in the hope it would dead end soon and he could get back to following the other path without leaving an unexplored section behind him. Moving into the new tunnel Gar went from a slight ducking of his head right down to a crouch. Realising he was in no position to fight like this he had the badgers spread evenly round him and move slightly closer so he felt safer. Even so he pushed onwards he could feel it inside of him the slight excitement, the curiosity of what was around each corner, the joy of the unknown. This was what he had hoped for adventure and the weight that rested on his heart lifted slightly. Gar came to a stop the badgers stopping at the same time he had heard a noise. It was hard to tell as noise echoed off the stone walls and the skeletons where making enough of it to make it difficult to hear a quiet noise. With everyone stopped the badgers where absolutely silent and Gar listened, just faintly he could hear light quick footsteps coming from ahead, well at least he thought it was from ahead the cave made sound difficult to track. The ceiling was still getting lower it wouldn¡¯t be much further until Gar was moving on his belly to get through, it was not ideal for a confrontation. With that in mind Gar listened, the creature or creatures must have been quite small to be moving so quickly in these tight tunnels, unless it opened up suddenly which Gar didn¡¯t think was likely. The noise came again and Gar was sure there was more than one of whatever these creatures where, not lots more but defiantly more than one. He wasn¡¯t quite ready to call his expedition quits just yet so figuring whatever was there was quite small. So in a moment of recklessness he had Bodger and B1 charge forwards as fast as they could. They made a lot of noise in the narrow tunnels and soon disappeared out of sight. Then they stopped and Gar listened. He could hear nothing the sound of whatever had been there was gone it was all quiet. Gar waited like that for a while listening for any signs of anything returning. Hearing nothing Gar started a slow crawl forwards stopping and listening every couple of meters. It wasn¡¯t too much further before he had to stop. He had come to a shallow hollow a little bowel like dip in the rock the roof so low he could not get all the way in. There were several cracks in the rock walls too small for even the badgers to fit into but obviously large enough for whatever¡¯s home this had been to escape through and he was certain it had been somethings home. He could see a nest of dried moss, a corner which he strongly suspected was the toilet and a series of stones that looked precisely placed even if he could not figure out why. He backed out his curiosity burning with questions satisfied he had reached the end of the tunnel and there was no way he could go any further in that direction. He returned all the way back to the junction, he wanted to go on his spirit for adventure ignited by his recent discovery but he knew it would be all too easy to lose touch of time in these tunnels he already had no idea how long he had been in there so he would return to base. All the way back he made a concerted effort to memorise the twists and turns the tunnel took and much sooner than he expected he was back at the cave snail cavern. After his earlier experiences there he wasn¡¯t too worried about the snails so he continued walking across the cavern normally although he still made sure to not get to close to any particular snail. Into the short tunnel then back outside. It was somewhere in the late afternoon he couldn¡¯t tell exactly when, certainly later than he had hoped although earlier than he had feared. The first thing Gar did upon leaving the cave was going to his fire pit and pick up a couple of old coals, even though they practically turned to mush from the rain he could make them work for his purposes. Moving into his shelter he crushed the coals into a paste in his hands then started using his finger to draw on the cliff wall. His old map had long since been washed off the cliff outside by the rain so he was making a new one inside his shelter, starting with marking out the twisting tunnels he had just explored. He moved quickly and methodically marking in the curves before he could forget them, making sure to mark on the turn off and the other tunnels he hadn¡¯t taken. ¡°Cartography levelled up cartography level 2¡± Once all he knew of the caves was done he moved on doing his best to recreate his map of the outside before adding to it, more details and even adding what he could remember of the ants cave. Even though it was rough and nothing was to scale Gar was happy with the end result it would be a good guide for him especially as he explored more tunnels. 35: finally finished It was still a bit early by his normal standards to eat and go to bed so remembering his frustration from earlier in the day Gar started climbing again he was feeling ready for another go. He would climb up a few meters then across then down again until he was almost touching the floor then he would climb across again before climbing up. Repeating this pattern across the length of the platform before reversing it and going back the other way. Every now and then he had to stop for a bit to rest his arms and legs or catch his breath and take a drink otherwise he continued, back and forth up and down. He was getting used to the rain slick rock, it was a matter of checking each hold and grip before trusting it with his weight always trying to have two good points of contact at least before moving. Just as it was getting dark his perseverance paid off. ¡°Climb levelled up climb level 5¡± Happy with his progress Gar climbed down feeling the burn in his arms. With the rain still coming down it was another cold dinner sat in his shelter. He sat there going over his day again the excitement at an adventure that fear of the unknown. Which lead him to confronting his feelings in general that fear he felt inside was still there but it hadn¡¯t stopped him he had felt it, felt it rise up a number of times but it hadn¡¯t been enough to stop him or make him freeze. Did he feel like he was better or more in control? If you had asked Gar he would have said no, he just wasn¡¯t thinking about it at the time. Sat afterwards he was thinking he must be an idiot the number of unnecessary risks he took was it worth his life to which he answered logically, no the gains did not equal his life however taking the risks was life. If he just spent his time huddled in his shelter fearing everything outside of it then it wouldn¡¯t be living and he would end up dying alone and scared. It would be at this point that if Gar was telling the story he would say he stood up and triumphantly declared he would not live a life of fear he would prefer to live a good life rather than a long one but Gar is not telling the story and that is not what happened. What did happen as he sat in that little shelter listening to the rain on the roof is he decided it had been a good day and he would try for another one. Gar rose to begin his morning routine although after the previous days efforts to get a level in climb he wanted a new section of wall, he would have to go down to ground level off his platform. He swung himself over the edge onto the ladder and was face to face with the rock before he realised he had found a place to practice. He took a hold of the rock in front of him then stepped off the ladder. He was already higher than he usually liked to go on his climbs so started to work his way down, it was not an easy climb so he took it slow and just let his practice and experience guide him. It felt good it was what he had needed a new rock face to climb not the same holds he had used before. He climbed until his body ached and his stamina was low then he stopped to eat. Cold axen pods where his breakfast as he had been ignoring them in favour of the nuts or berries, so he forced himself to eat them so they didn¡¯t go to waste. They weren¡¯t bad they just were bland and uninteresting which he supposed fitted with the job he wanted to do that day. His rope was almost there it needed one more session of twisting. That is what he was going to get done. With nothing for it but to get to it Gar found the middle folded it over and started twisting. Time passed and Gar kept twisting, he got into the rhythm faster than last time and soon he needed the badgers help to keep it tight. He just let his mind wander as he worked not thinking about anything important just letting his hands move as he worked and much sooner than he expected he was finished. It hadn¡¯t really occurred to him that the length more than halved each time. Tying of the ends he looked at his finished rope, giving it a pull the rope seemed strong the initial fibres could hold a decent weight and now all twisted together it could hold a lot more. It was time to test it; if he was going to trust his life to it he was going to make sure that it held. First he coiled the rope up unwinding from where it was held taught to twist bringing it together. Then he started running it through his hand, right hand out pulling the rope between thumb and forefinger looking for any fraying or weak points or anywhere it could get caught as it was pulled through any rough spots that could cause problems. He was persistent and worked his way through the entire length, it seemed perfect no problems in its entire nearly five hundred meter length. Next he took it over to one of the trees on his platform, they were just big enough for what he wanted. He threw the end of the rope over one of the thicker branches letting it hang down on either side, then taking a piece on either side in hand he lifted his legs and hung from it, it held. Sliding the rope a couple of meters along he repeated this act again it held, he did this across the whole length of the rope. Twice he checked for any weak points in it, the entire thing held up with no problem. Gar was much more confident that it would hold when he needed it to. He had a safe and strong rope of roughly five hundred meters long which he estimated to be a bit under half the height of the cliffs that surrounded him, it would be a big help in getting him and his stuff out of there. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. With the rope made he turned his mind to what else he would need to get out of there. He would need supplies food and water. Water was going to be the main issue he had plenty of nuts and berries and already knew where to get more, water on the other hand he could get plenty but a bucket was no way to carry water on a journey. He was going to have to make something to hold water, some sort of sealable water bottle. That was not going to be an easy one to solve, carving one from wood was out as he was no way good enough to carve a tight enough fitting lid. Besides to be able to hollow it out properly it would have to be at least the size of a bucket and once full that would not only be an awkward shape to carry with him but it would also be heavy. He needed some sort of waterproof material he could easily shape while also being light weight and tough enough to withstand the wears of use. He didn¡¯t have an immediate answer he would need to think about it. As for other things he would need he wasn¡¯t sure, anything to help him climb would be good however what that might be completely escaped him. By this point Gar was starting to feel antsy he felt like he was wasting time and that he should be doing something. When he realised this he stopped himself from going back into the rain to look for things he could use instead he remained sat on his bed and thought. Why was he rushing he was in no imminent danger he had no time limit, his mind flickered to the rising water level. The river had broken its banks and the water level was rising but he was also on a platform fifteen meters up in the air the kilometres wide hole he was in would need to all be filled up that height before it became a problem for him and while he doubted that would happen if it was to happen it would take months of rain so he had time. He truly had plenty of time and he was attempting to do something that really shouldn¡¯t be rushed. That was all well and good to say but it didn¡¯t change how Gar felt he wanted to be moving to be doing something. So he figured if he wanted to move he would move he started climbing again. He remained on the wall at the back of his platform although he tried something different he stayed at a low level doing rapid movements trying to exhaust his stamina as quick as possible, then he would sit eat and drink and let his stamina refill before going all over again. At the beginning he was falling all the time, Gar was certain he would be covered in bruises by the next morning. Slowly he learnt, learnt to judge a hold better, learnt to hold on tighter, he was still falling off the wall every couple of minutes but he could see where he had made a mistake and he had ideas on what to do to fix it. It was dark when he fell one last time and called it a day too tired to stand he simply crawled into his shelter and slept. The morning came all too quickly for Gar¡¯s liking he crawled out into the sunlight still sore from his exertions the previous day. He stood and stretched feeling his body loosen and start to feel better already. Before he could think too much about it he moved to the wall and started climbing, by this point he had started to climb higher and spend longer on the wall. Gar had gotten used to the rain slick rock and trusted in his climbing skills. He had worked out it was best to keep his body as close to the rock as possible and to not stretch too far with one limb and to always move everything together one after the other. ¡°Climb levelled up climb level 6¡± Gar barely registered the message preferring to keep his focus on his climbing. He was tempted to see how high he could go, to push himself up the cliff. It wasn¡¯t time for that though so he held off he couldn¡¯t afford the risk he wasn¡¯t climbing for an adrenalin high a fall wouldn¡¯t end with a helicopter ride to a hospital, he had the time he wasn¡¯t going to risk it. With his morning climb done it was time for another day of exploring the tunnels. Much less cautious of the cave snails at this point Gar was circling round them so as not to force an interaction otherwise he was making no effort not to be noticed by them as he and the badgers where back in formation walking quickly. Gar had decided he would take the same tunnel off the cave snails cavern as before only when he reached the split he would explore the other direction to previously. He took a short break as he stood at the split in the tunnel having travelled quickly to get there. His remembered boredom of the long empty tunnel joined with his desire to explore somewhere new had pushed him to move through the tunnel much faster that previously, it was still a walk but only just. Gar was regretting his actions as he stood hands on knees breathing heavy it was only upon stopping that he had realised how fast he had been going for how long. Mentally he bumped finding a way to carry water up his priority¡¯s list, he could have really done with a drink then despite eating and drinking his fill before setting out. 36: Crack Once recovered Gar stood and looked at the split in the tunnel the left side he had already explored the right side that continued on straight for as far as his dark vision could see. The right hand tunnel that was his next place to explore. Gar moved at a much more cautious pace once he was going into unexplored territory keeping three badgers spread out in front of him and Bodger bringing up the rear, they kept moving at a slow but constant pace not stopping. It became tougher work as the tunnel started to angle upwards at a steeper and steeper rate, which reduced their pace more and more. Gar was so focused on placing one foot in front of the other while maintaining his balance and keeping an eye ahead, that it was only when he stopped and looked around did he realise how wide the cave he was in had gotten. It was wide enough that looking to his left or right his dark vision cut off before he saw the walls. Even though he was in a cave he felt exposed and in the open. He started moving to his left trying to find the wall, to be less exposed and have one side guarded by the stone. When he got to the wall he realised he was in a massive crack in the rock that had opened up, he could see the stone coming together until there was nothing more than a hairline fracture in the rock. Fortunately the badgers still seemed to be able to move relatively freely despite the rather steep angle and narrowed space. This place was going to need to be explored carefully so he didn¡¯t miss any off shoots or side tunnels. With the angle the floor was at he was making rapid progress up he figured he would have to be at least three or four hundred meters up by that point. Gar moved out from the wall a bit until he could stand and move comfortably then reorganised the badgers one in front and behind him as well as one on either side of him. He would have liked a rock wall on one side and two badgers on the other side, unfortunately with the way the floor and ceiling closed together that wasn¡¯t possible and there was too much room where he couldn¡¯t walk but something could crawl out from to leave one side unguarded. Despite that it was still better than being out in the open in the middle of the room. Gar did not want to do it despite knowing it was for the best, he wanted to find out what was at the top, how high it would go. Instead he turned back the way he had come, facing down the slope and started walking. The tunnel had gotten so wide without him realising that he could have walked right past an opening or some creature that might ambush him later he had decided it was better to go back to check. There was nothing he had missed he moved all the way down until he could see both sides of the tunnel again to be sure, he hadn¡¯t missed anything. He grumbled to himself a little about wasted time as he turned and started his ascent again, remaining close to the wall this time. He continued on trying to estimate how high up he was going as he went, he guessed he was at least six hundred meters up when he got to the top and had to stop. He had reached a wall, literally the stone was a solid wall. There was a slight crack running along the floor and ceiling not even big enough to fit his little finger in. It was as if a large stone had been slammed down and cut off the rest of the cave completely blocking the cave while not being attached to it. There was nothing for it he needed to explore along the top then down the other side of the room, he had made so much progress up he was more than halfway to the surface he just hopped there was another way out to continue on up. Gar made his way along the top of the slope looking for another way out anything even a small chute to crawl in would do, he was getting more desperate the further along he went. There was no other way out just the same tiny crack top and bottom and a solid wall of stone. It wasn¡¯t over as he hadn¡¯t gone down the other side but he hadn¡¯t realised how much the hope of a way out had done for him and how much it hurt upon being ripped away even after only such a short amount of time. Slowly and carefully more looking for a tunnel than any concern for monsters, Gar made his way down the other side. Then upon not finding anything he made his way up again crossing back and forth checking floor and ceiling for any way out. He was forced to admit there was none he had checked everywhere this tunnel was clear and lead nowhere. Gar trudged back along the tunnel to the cave snails any excitement for exploring lost in the gain and loss of hope for an exit. He tried consoling himself that their where more tunnels to check more places to explore. It was of only minor relief as what stung worse for Gar was that he thought he had known better than to get his hopes up and it seemed it wasn¡¯t that easy to control. Once back at the cave snail cavern he needed to decide if he was done for the day or to explore some more. He really wasn¡¯t in the mood to do more exploring any fun had been drained out of it; on the other hand if he called it there he would mope and be unmotivated for the rest of the day. He was unsure what was best, would he be in the right frame of mind for the appropriate caution if he continued or would he end up doing something stupid if he went back to base in this dower mood. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Gar went to slap his face to bring some sense back into him. What he actually did was catch his hand on the horn that curled round his ear. The point piercing his palm and giving him a small scratch causing Gar to let out a ¡°Hisss¡± from the pain and squeezing his fist to stop the trickle of blood. It hadn¡¯t been what he was aiming for but it did the trick, the pain and the anger at the stupidity of it pushed the mood he had settled into from his mind. He wasn¡¯t going to stop after one minor setback he moved off marching towards another tunnel. All other things being equal and with no better reason he went to the closer of the two unexplored tunnels. As he got closer he slowed down again this was a new tunnel he needed to be cautious he had no idea what could be down there, and it was down there. The tunnel he had chosen had a downwards slope right from the outset, the celling was about three meters high and it was the same wide. With the size of the tunnel Gar decided it would be best to go with three badgers in front and one behind again. Slowly and as quietly as they could his whole formation moved along the tunnel, Gar keeping his head moving this time watching ahead and the walls even giving glances to check the ceiling, he wasn¡¯t going to end up out in the middle again. It hadn¡¯t cost him last time and he wasn¡¯t going to give it the opportunity to next time. Just a short way down the tunnel Gar came across multiple surprises. First he came across a snail eating on a patch of fungus, it was strange because there had been no sign the snails ever entered the other tunnel he had been down. He brought the badgers in close and moved along the far side of the tunnel from the snail, moving slowly but consistently with no loud noises or sudden movements so as not to freak the snail out. For the snails part it acted much the same as the ones in the cavern, it was as if it hadn¡¯t even noticed there existence and kept eating. The other surprise was not far past the snail Gar came to a crossroads. With three options to choose from Gar kept it simple and chose the left most tunnel, figuring if he always chose left it would be harder to get lost. Over the next few hours Gar would find that the whole area was a maze; of interconnected caverns, of tunnels that connected and split off from each other. Despite all this the only other life he saw where more of the giant cave snails and the moss and fungus they were eating. On a couple of occasions he heard the sound of something scurrying about outside his visions range but he was never able to get sight of it. Eventually he called it a day and backtracked through his entire route. He was pretty sure he had crossed a few areas twice and if he took a different turn he would cut chunks off his journey, still he took the long way following his exact route back the way he came. He much preferred to take a route he was sure of even if it did take a bit longer, as opposed to taking a route that might be wrong because one wrong turn in that maze of tunnels would turn into a lifetime of lost even if it wouldn¡¯t be that long a life. Back at camp despite his hunger and thirst Gar took another damp coal from the fire pit and crushed it to paste in his hand. Using the paste he added to his map, starting with the other passage of the long tunnel and the slopped room. He then moved across to another section of the blank wall and started trying to map out the maze off the other tunnel. ¡°Cartography levelled up cartography level 3¡± There were lots of smudges and marks where he realised he was wrong about parts or he hadn¡¯t left enough space and parts started overlapping. Eventually though he got to a point where he had something he was happy with, it wasn¡¯t perfect and he was sure there were some mistakes even with that it was good enough for him to be happy with it so he started copying it across to his main map. ¡°Cartography levelled up cartography level 4¡± With the map drawn before he could forget Gar went back outside to grab a drink from the barrel, he scooped cup after cup of water into his mouth while holding the flat disk of a lid in the other hand. Once his thirst was sated Gar started to form an idea from the circular lid, it would have to wait though it had taken longer to get out than Gar had thought and all he wanted at that point was to eat then sleep, which is exactly what he did. Gar crawled out of his shelter to find it would be a good day, the rain had stopped. The sky was still grey and heavy with clouds but at that moment it wasn¡¯t raining. Not taking the time to enjoy the now strange, dry weather Gar got on with his morning climb. As he climbed he started planning out his day that was until he made a grab he should have easily been able to complete only to slip and fall hard. As he sat contemplating his sore behind he realised how complacent he had gotten with his climbing, between the surprise dry weather and his regularity of climbing he had stopped paying attention and a bruised behind was what he got for it. He realised he wasn¡¯t doing the climbing for fun or to exercise it was to push and improve his skill and that was only going to happen if he gave it his full attention. So he pushed thoughts of other things out of his mind, only thinking about the climb, what he could do better, smoother more efficient he had a long climb he couldn¡¯t be wasting energy. He focused on what he was doing to the exclusion of all else and it got results. ¡°Climb levelled up climb level 7¡± Even after getting the message Gar ignored it keeping his focus on just climbing it wasn¡¯t about the numbers, he needed to be better at climbing to succeed. He kept climbing until he was sore from the exercise, only then did he call it done. 37: Problems and solutions As it wasn¡¯t raining for the first time in a while Gar decided to light a fire to eat something warm it would be a treat even if it was the same berries pods and nuts he had been eating. He tried starting a fire but it wouldn¡¯t happen all his wood was too wet to catch, even using some of the dried pine needles from his bedding as kindling didn¡¯t help the wood was all simply too wet to catch. He figured that would be his start for the day then he needed some dry or at least dryer wood, despite that being the plan he wasn¡¯t sure where he would find anything dry when it had been raining for days. Nothing would change with him just standing there so he made do with another cold breakfast then he gathered his bag and his axe to go explore the forest again. He felt a little uncomfortable leaving his spear behind even though he had his axe to replace it and he still had the four badgers with him, the axe just had a different balance he wasn¡¯t used to instead of the comforting familiarity of his spear. It quickly became clear to him that anything on the forest floor was soaked so he started looking at the lower branches of the trees, particularly those with broad canopies offering lots of shelter. It didn¡¯t take too much wandering to come across armfuls of lower branches that where dead or easily removed with the axe, much of it was a little damp all of it was much dryer than anything he had at his base. He took several more trips having to go slightly further each time to gather some more wood. Some was stored in his shelter for more immediate use while the rest was put inside the cave entrance on his platform where it was out of the way but would stay dry if it started raining again. Gar used his shovel to clean out the sludge and mess that remained in his fire pit then was able to get a fire going. He sat close to the fire, for the first time wishing he had some sort of chair so he wasn¡¯t sat on the damp ground. Despite eating not that long ago sitting by the fire made Gar want to eat something different, so he skewered a couple of axen pods on a stick and started roasting them over the fire. The cold and wet hadn¡¯t bothered him before but sat by that fire he just wanted to be warm and dry as quick as possible, especially he wanted to dry out his trousers that had been damp for days. He sat watching the pods cook as he dried out, he let the pods char slightly before giving an experimental bite. The skin of the pod had blistered while the flesh had broken down a bit so it wasn¡¯t so stringy the char adding something different to the taste, all in all it was one of if not the best way he had found to eat the pods. He started setting up a couple more pods to cook while polishing off the first ones. He was looking around while the next pods cooked for more reasons (excuses) to remain sat by the fire. Seeing the pile of ant carapaces he remembered something interesting in there inspect results, he pulled it up to check. Mega-ra ant worker carapace The exoskeleton of a mega-ra ant worker a lightweight but strong material. Has interesting properties when heated. Uses: alchemy, smithing Value: ???? Quality: good Rarity: frequent Durability: 180/180 It was the ¡°has interesting properties when heated¡± line that caught his interest; he hadn¡¯t been able to test it out before with no heat source. Sat in front of a fire he had an opportunity, leaning over he snagged a piece of carapace and looked it over. The piece he had was from a worker ant¡¯s thorax. It was smooth relatively light material with a slight flex in it as Gar gave it a squeeze. It reminded him of some kind of plastic. Eager to see what would happen Gar pulled the axen pods out of the fire despite them not being as well done as the previous ones, not really caring at that point Gar ate them quickly so he could get on with seeing how the carapace did. Poking a stick through one of the leg holes in the piece he dangled it over the fire, after a couple of seconds he pulled it back. Looking it over he could see no real difference to how it started, he tried touching it. Just the very tip of his finger and a very quick tap at that, it was slightly warm but that was it. He touched it again this time for longer, the carapace had warmed all over somehow evenly the material must have great heat transfer properties. When squeezed Gar thought he could detect slightly more flex in it than before. He dangled it over the fire again this time holding it for a couple of minutes, it was still not showing any visible difference as Gar pulled it out anyway. Another quick tap and again it was warm not blisteringly hot like Gar thought it should be. He pulled the piece off the stick and started handling it, like before it was warm and evenly so all over despite some parts being much closer to the flames than others. Giving it a slight squeeze to check how it flexed Gar was surprised when the whole piece deformed instead. Letting go the piece remained in its new shape. Gar was fascinated it was such an interesting material he played with it for another minute or so squeezing and pulling it into various shapes before it cooled and hardened again. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Knowing he had a large pile of the carapace to use Gar took a small risk and dropped the piece he had been playing with directly into the middle of the fire. Gar watched as the fire burned around the carapace seemingly having no effect on it, after five or so minutes in the centre of the fire Gar used a stick to knock it out and sent it rolling towards himself. As it came to a stop against his leg he found it was still only a pleasant warm temperature and nothing more, although this time it was much softer taking minimal effort to mould. Seeing how far the material would go Gar pushed one of the leg holes closed then folded the edge over on itself squeezing and manipulating the carapace trying to seal the hole, it grew cold and hard again before he could finish so back into the fire it went. A couple of minutes later and fresh from the fire Gar was able to smooth together the two edges completely sealing the hole as if it hadn¡¯t been there. Gar could think of so many uses for this material he just had one more thing to test. He went and got his conrex claw knife and with the carapace cooled and hard he tried to cut it with his knife. He was able to leave a scratch in the surface and could tell with some effort and work he could probably cut it. He dropped the carapace back into the fire a few minutes later he pulled it out and tried cutting it again, the knife easily cut through it although he found the knife getting hotter the longer he used it on the carapace. He didn¡¯t have any explanation for how any of this worked but he didn¡¯t really care too much he had a pile of the stuff and it was much more useful to him. The first use for it was going to be solving his water issue, he was confident he would be able to make some water bottles with it. The first step was using his knife and a few sturdy sticks he stripped the bark and carved a handful of tapered plugs. He then dropped some worker abdomen sections into the fire, while taking one of his off cuts of rope and unwinding it to get a number of bits of cord. Pulling one of the abdomen sections out of the fire, he put his wooden plug into the opening where the abdomen had joined the rest of the body then started working the material up the plug shaping it into a thin neck. Once he had enough material around the plug he pulled it out then put the abdomen back in the fire, a couple of minutes later he brought it out again. The tapered plug was put back in then the cord was wrapped around and around the neck pulling it tight the entire time closing the carapace onto the plug, before letting it cool. With the new bottle cooled and hard again Gar pulled the plug out, he didn¡¯t mind the slight stiffness to it as that meant it was a nice tight fit. Pushing the plug back in again it went in snuggly closing the bottle again even turning it upside down the plug stayed in place. All was good but would it hold water that was the real test. Pulling the plug out he filled it from his water barrel, as a basic shape it held water that was good, would the plug hold that was what mattered. He pushed the plug in giving it an extra push home to be sure, and then he slowly started tipping the bottle. It held at ninety degrees he kept tipping still no leeks, even turned all the way upside down and giving it a shake the plug held , no leaks. Gar did a little dance in happiness he had a way to carry water it needed work and was far from perfect but the hardest and most important part was done it held water and sealed. He sat to solve the problems with his bottle, first was the shape it looked like a large egg with a thin neck coming out the bottom that would just be awkward to store and carry. The shape of modern water bottles was out he didn¡¯t think he could reproduce that, instead he was thinking something akin to the traditional fantasy leather water skin or that sort of shape. He placed the bottle so just the bottom of it away from the neck was in the fire to let it heat up. Once it was suitably soft he started flattening out the shape and rounding the edges. It took some work and several times in and out of the fire, eventually he had a shape he was happy with it just needed a couple of finishing touches. He heated it again then pinched a piece of material near the neck completely flattening it and moulding it so the two layers sealed together before he put a hole in it with the tip of his knife. Then he repeated that near the base creating a second tab to put a strap through to hold it. The final touch was using his small auger he bore a hole in the top of the plug where it stuck out from the bottle then threaded the excess cord from round the neck through the hole and tied it off so when the plug was removed he wouldn¡¯t lose it. Gar took it back to the water barrel to check none of his work had ruined its seal. He was in luck it held. Gar was surprised by how proud he was of making his water bottle, so he simply enjoyed the moment. With one bottle done Gar got on and made four more, none of them where perfect or identical to each other but that didn¡¯t matter to Gar he was happy with what he had produced. Gar used a bit more unwound rope to make straps for all his water bottles. Gar couldn¡¯t help but feel the need to celebrate, while it may not seem like much the ability to carry drinking water with him on his travels was a huge hurdle he had overcome. 38: Celebration The best way Gar could come up with to celebrate when he was stuck alone in the wilderness was some good food, having lived off cold nuts and berries for days other than a couple of roasted pods at that point just a hot meal would be good. With that in mind the most obvious option for something different he could cook was some fish. When he had caught one previously it was by hand, with the higher water level and faster currents he wanted some equipment. First he found where the slumbering vine thorns had ended up, then after some searching and chucking excess stuff out of his shelter Gar was able to find a stray strand of slumbering vine fibre. With the necessary pieces he started making what he had in mind. He measured off the first four meters of the fibre then started tying on the barbed thorns at regular intervals, by the time he was done he had twenty-three thorns tied onto the fibre the last one right on the end. The next step was tricky, each of the thorns where hollow and like little hypodermic needles ready to inject the slumbering vines sap into it¡¯s would be victims. They had lost their load when Gar had removed them, what he wanted to do was to reload them with sap in the hopes it would both lure in fish and stop them struggling or escaping when caught. Sometime later after one brief paralysis, when Gar had gotten the bright idea to try and suck the sap into the tiny hollow tube where he had ended up swallowing a small amount, and countless small pricks from the thorns and sticky fingers from the sap Gar was confident he had gotten some sap into most of the thorns. It just needed one last thing. Gar carved a large wooden spike, basically a sharpened stick about the length of his forearm and drilled a hole in the non-sharpened end. He then tied the beginning of his line through that hole. Wrapping the line gently round the stick so he could carry it without it getting tangled or caught he was ready to go, especially as he had finally got his trousers dry from sitting next to the fire. With spear and badgers he set off to the river. The amount the river had swollen in the recent rains it didn¡¯t take too long to reach it, Gar continued on upstream a little ways until he came to a section that he thought would be good for fishing. He had no real knowledge to base his decision on so it was all just guesswork; he started unwinding his line looking at the thorns as he did so. Despite the slumbering vine sap in the thorns he wasn¡¯t sure it would be enough to lure any fish to bite, so he put the line down got on his hands and knees and started rooting through the leaf litter. He hadn¡¯t looked before so hadn¡¯t realised how alive it was, he soon found a number of beetles and bugs along with snails slugs and worms. Not knowing what would be best Gar tried them all spiking them onto the thorns. With his line properly baited Gar held the stick then flicked his wrist forwards sending the line out into the water then stabbing the sharpened end of the stick into the ground he looked around. He hadn¡¯t really thought this through he had been so focused on the act of catching the fish he hadn¡¯t thought enough to bring his knife to gut the fish once he caught some. He washed his hands in the river checked the stick was securely in the ground then turned back to base, he could pick up a knife and anything else he needed as well as kill some time. He collected his knife as well as a section of leather from his supply, needles and thread along with bringing his bucket. By the time he returned to where he had left the line he¡¯d only been gone for about quarter of an hour, while he thought it unlikely he reeled in his line to see if he had caught anything yet. As he had suspected he hadn¡¯t caught anything and somewhere along the line he had lost a couple of pieces of bait so a couple of extra minutes to root around and replace them then he recast his line. Leaning up against a tree not far away he stationed the badgers round him keeping an eye, ear and nose out for anything coming their way. With one eye on his spike and line he started trying to make a sheaf for his knife. The leatherworking was slow so a good task for keeping him busy while he waited. He went for a simple design folding the leather over cutting it to the shape of the blade then stitching it along one edge. It was slow work he found he had to pierce the leather each time with the tip of his knife just to get the needle through. Gar didn¡¯t mind the time or effort though it kept him busy and even earned him a new skill. ¡°New skill acquired leatherworking level 1¡± He had left a strip of leather up near the top that he folded back then stitched onto itself to create a loop so the sheaf could be slipped onto a belt and then the sheaf was finished. He didn¡¯t know exactly how much time had passed so just went with it being long enough to check how his fishing was going. He pulled up his spike then started rolling the line up onto the stick slowly bringing it in. Slightly disappointed when the first five thorns had come in all with bait gone and no fish his mood dramatically changed when there was a fish on both the sixth and seventh thorn. He tried not to be dissatisfied when he only got one more very small fish on the very last thorn. He had caught three fish two level 2 Brown trout and one small level 1 Brown trout. Pulling them off the barbs as they came he had dropped them in a bucket of water he had prepared. Seeing no reason to wait he finished off and gutted the three fish quickly. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°You have killed a level 2 Brown trout 0 experience awarded¡± ¡°You have killed a level 2 Brown trout 0 experience awarded¡± ¡°You have killed a level 1 Brown trout 0 experience awarded¡± The 0 experience was unexpected but made sense it would be broken if he could keep getting experience from such easy kills even when he was double their level. The guts where chucked back in the river and with all his stuff packed up he hurried back to base with his catch. The fire had burned low so Gar added some of his dry wood and stoked it back to flame; the fish was put on a stick and roasted over the fire. Gar liked to think of himself as smart enough to only need to be taught a lesson once so learning from that morning he focused on just what he was doing cooking the fish. He adjusted their height from the fire so they would all cook at roughly the same speed he watched and turned them when needed, this meal was his celebration he was going to make sure he did it right and it seemed the world agreed. ¡°Cooking levelled up cooking level 5¡± Gar didn¡¯t let it distract him just letting the message pass him by and stayed attentive to his cooking. He wouldn¡¯t say he was an expert but he had learnt by that point that cooking on an open fire was much different from cooking in an oven or on a hob there were no temperature controls and the heat wasn¡¯t consistent. Gar did his best and kept constant watch adjusting as he felt it needed and when he thought it was ready he pulled the fish out of the fire. The cooked fish was set down on his large flat stone and Gar slid the sticks out of them. Using the sharp tip of a finger he started pulling the meat away from the bones, it flaked beautifully. Scooping some up in his fingers Gar put it in his mouth and moaned in satisfaction, it was good, worthy of his celebration. He finished the first fish in no time flat, so forced himself to slow down for the second one. He was enjoying the fish very much yet he still wished for something more he had always liked a squeeze of lemon over his fish the acid just added to the flavour. Realising while he might not have any lemons he did have something tart and acidic, the thorn berries. He got some of the berries from the sack in his shelter and then squeezed one onto a small piece of fish in his hand. He wasn¡¯t going to ruin the whole fish by squeezing berries over all of it in case it didn¡¯t work. Trying the mouthful he couldn¡¯t help but let out another moan of satisfaction, while it wasn¡¯t quite the same as adding a squeeze of lemon it did add that extra something he had been wishing for. More berries where squeezed over the remaining fish and Gar enjoyed himself in front of the fire, slowly eating the fish. He took this time to remind himself he was working to get out of there and survive and in order to do that he needed to be in good shape and that meant mentally as well as physically so taking some time to just enjoy things sometimes was important. Lying back by the fire he was warm and comfortable despite the grey and gloomy day. He could have laid there for the rest of the day content in enjoying having a fire and he would have been happy. Instead he had one more task he wanted to accomplish before he went back into those tunnels the next day and that was, he needed some kind of pen and paper or something to mark a map as he went. The one on his wall was okay except he was sure he had made some mistakes, trying to do it all from memory hours later was never going to give perfect results. He needed a way to mark a map as he went something he could take with him and reference in the future, a perfect map on his wall was no use if he was lost in the tunnels. Writing implements was easier. He knocked a couple of coals out of the fire to let them go cold, they would work well for marking walls as he travelled. For drawing the actual map he took a stick and broke it into pencil sized pieces before burning both ends, he didn¡¯t let them catch completely on fire just had them in the edge of the fire pit so the ends charred until he had a pencil like stick with charcoal ends. They didn¡¯t write for a great deal of time but with their ease to make and their light weight he could easily carry a number of them to make up for their short use time and having both ends done was a big help. With one of his new writing sticks Gar just went round his base testing writing on various things. It marked his pots and pans but came off easily, it didn¡¯t really mark the ant carapace, and it worked fine on the stone except he couldn¡¯t take it with him. It worked on his leather sheet but that was far too valuable for this, then he rediscovered something in the pile of stuff he had thrown into his shelter when it started raining. The badger skins, they had become stiff and tough, testing his writing stick on the inside of one it marked well. Gar was happy to have found both a use for the skin and something to make a map. He took the three skins outside to get a better look at them, one seemed to be rotting and not very good. He used his rot spell on that one several times to get rid of it. ¡°Rot levelled up rot level 2¡± The other two seemed to have been scrapped better and dried out properly, he unfolded and stretched out the two skins he had left then picking the slightly smaller on he cut off the head, legs and tail section giving him a near it rectangular piece of skin and a much more manageable piece, it was stiff enough to maintain its shape when held out for drawing on but with a bit of effort it could be rolled to put it away safely. With his final task he wanted to get done, done Gar sat back down to enjoy the fire and relax. Sometime after sunset his relaxation was brought to an end by the returning of the rain, so he called it a night. 39: Map The rain had stopped again by the time Gar woke, in its place it had left a thick fog obscuring everything and for once his dark vision was useless for seeing through the obscuration. He could feel it in the air it felt heavy around him. Despite that he saw no reason to change his routine he started to climb moving across from his platform onto new rock he hadn¡¯t climbed before. The fog made for an interesting session it limited his ability to plan out his route but in doing so helped him to narrow his focus onto each move and motion only able to see the rock just in front of him. With his morning climb done he got himself ready and set off to explore the tunnels again only this time he was much more prepared. He had his spear as before along with his backpack he had his knife in its new sheaf hanging from a section of rope round his waist he was using as a belt, there was a full water bottle in his bag along with some nuts to snack on, as well as his writing sticks and the prepared badger skin along with a couple of larger coals. With better equipment and the badgers at his side Gar was ready to explore. He had to squeeze past his stored wood just past the tunnel entrance then he was off. He kept his pace slow he was in no rush he would take his time on exploring right. Once in the cave snail cavern as Gar had come to think of it he took out the skin and a writing stick he marked on the entrance, the short tunnel and the cavern he was in along with the entrance to each of the tunnels leading off from it. It was much easier to make things properly and to scale with them right in front of him instead of trying to do it from memory. He marked the tunnel that sloped up with a small square to indicate it was fully explored, he resolved if he stayed there long enough he would travel down it again so he could mark it accurately in his map, it wasn¡¯t a priority though so it would simply remain marked only as far as he could see of it from the entrance. Gar was focused on the maze of tunnels he had explored the other day. He took it slow completely ignoring the fact he had been there before the network was too complex it would have only added to the confusion so he was starting again. Gar made his way down the tunnels marking every junction and side tunnel onto his map as well as using the chunks of coal to draw arrows on the floor and walls to indicate which tunnels he went into and came out of. This was immensely helpful in identifying if he had been to a place before when he came to it from a different angle or he got all turned around. With the map and his markings meaning he wasn¡¯t stuck trying to memorise his route for when he wanted to get out again Gar found he was able to start looking at his surroundings more. He noticed he was moving through several different kinds of rock as he travelled. He even stopped a number of times when he saw an almost sparkling in the walls on closer inspection Gar guessed it was some kind of metal ore, he made sure to mark those locations on his map. It was also this extra time to pay attention that let him notice something he had missed previously. He was not staying on one flat horizontal level, in fact he was going both up and down a lot. He wasn¡¯t certain of it at first until he had travelled through a tunnel that according to his map should have intersected with a small cavern yet it never did. ¡°Cartography levelled up cartography level 5¡± It took a couple of hours of going back over where he had been all while consulting his map and editing it before he was happy he had been able to map out the full extent of the elevation changes and he was starting to pick out signs he could use to indicate if a tunnel would go up or down even if he couldn¡¯t tell from a basic look at it. He even started having observe active all the time to help him spot the tell-tale signs. With this information he stopped just picking the left most tunnels or whichever would fill in sections of his map, instead he actively worked towards going up. It wasn¡¯t easy he wasn¡¯t always up as some tunnels that started going up went down further than they went up resulting in a net loss before he got a chance to turn off it but overall he was slowly getting higher. Gar had been wandering for hours his map was massively filled in, he only had a couple of writing sticks left. He had finished his water and had stopped eating the nuts as they were just making him thirsty, Gar should have turned back he still had a long way back to base. Except he felt he hadn¡¯t achieved anything yet, which wasn¡¯t true he had filled in a large and complex area of his map, he had found several ore deposits and a few small mammal dens, yet none of it was what he was looking for he wanted the awe inspiring site or the curious thing that seemed impossible anything to make it an adventure. He had long since almost completely abandoned any caution. Having decided the next time he reached a dead end or come to an area where his only choice was to go down he would turn back he was moving with purpose. As he travelled through a tunnel where he could easily reach out and touch both sides he realised that it was time to go back it was foolish to just keep going for who knew how long, so he turned back the way he had come he looked around once more still reluctant to leave. As he did he happened to glance up, he immediately had to look again something had caught his attention he just wasn¡¯t sure what it was. The same grey rock was up there as surrounded him nothing stood out. Then Gar realised what it was, he could see the rock up there it was fifty or sixty meters way outside the range of his dark vision. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. He could only think of one reason why, there was light up there. Not much just enough to allow him to see with his dark vision. All thoughts of returning back to base where forgotten he needed to get up there and find out what it was. He started trying to find hand holds in the rock, it was far to smooth there was nowhere to get a grip. Gar took a step back to get a better look, only to bump into the wall on the other side. A quick look then a check of the distance and he had a plan. He put down his bag making sure his map was safely inside then turned and lent his back up against the wall. Slowly he raised one leg and placed it against the opposite wall, pushing to hold him in place he raised the second leg to join the first. Wedged between the two walls he could slide his back up and walk up the wall, he was a uncomfortable about going alone and while he couldn¡¯t take all the badgers he could take one. Bodger jumped up on his lap, fortunately the skeletal badger didn¡¯t weigh much being just bones. So Gar worked his way up his badger companion balancing itself in his lap. Gar was glad he had decent strength and endurance scores as even with that he had been walking all day and his legs were tired and starting to ache before he reached the top and his back was sore from having scrapped along the rock. When he got high enough he found he was off the mark there was a cave leading off but it was a couple of meters too his left, he had to do an awkward shuffle to the side to get over there. Once they were right next to it he had Bodger jump off onto the edge while he had to take a moment to psych himself up for the next part, there was no easy way from his position into the cave. In the end it involved sliding as close as he could then throwing his whole body forwards into the cave, he rolled a couple times to get away from the edge but he had done it. It was defiantly lighter up there and Gar could see why, further down the tunnel there was a spot of light. With only one badger with him and only his knife as a weapon Gar was back to full caution he slowly crept towards the light. It was so bright in the darkness that at his distance Gar couldn¡¯t tell what it was. It was only as he got closer that he heard the noise and realised what it was, he could hear rain. The tunnel curved sharply to the right, however Gar didn¡¯t care because right there in front of him was a hole to the outside. The hole wasn¡¯t large slightly smaller than his head, he peaked through and could see out over the cenote he had been trapped in. It was grey and at some point it had started raining. Despite all that for the first time he was high enough up he could see right across the hole to the cliffs on the far side an imposing wall trapping him. From what he could tell he was about half way up the wall. Gar was happy enough to dance, he picked Bodger up and swung him around in joy. He had been worried about how far he had to climb if he could start at that point he would have already cut the distance in half. Gar stopped celebrating and calmed himself there was still lots to do. He would need to widen the hole so he could climb out and he should check the tunnel out and see where it led it may even end up taking him higher. All that would have to wait as it was late in the day Gar was tired and he still had to make his way back. It was an awkward climb down, pushing up was a lot less frightening than letting himself slip down. At the bottom he quickly had out his map marking on the tunnel and the hole ready to find it again. Picking up all his stuff he set out for base. It still took hours to get back but with the help of his map he was able to take the shortest route possible and cut down the time it could have been a fair amount. Once he got outside Gar made a dash through the rain and into his shelter trying to keep as dry as possible. He grabbed the full water bottle he had left in there and almost downed the whole thing, he had learnt his lesson he had made multiple water bottles so use them don¡¯t just take one. With some water inside him he started eating some pods and nuts as he turned to the map on his wall. He compared it to the map he had with him and it was mostly wrong some of the larger tunnels where mostly correct and that was about it. Rather than trying to correct it Gar rubbed off the entire section of the map about the caves then started redoing it copying from his new map ¡°Cartography levelled up cartography level 6¡± He didn¡¯t really need it as he had the portable one but it raised his cartography level and he liked having it, so Gar figured he would keep it up to date at least until he left. Once it was done and Gar had eaten he no longer had a reason or the energy to fight sleep. 40: New hope ¡°New stats added to status: +1 endurance¡± Gar was happy to see the gain as he hadn¡¯t gotten any for a while and he could feel the exercise in his muscles that had earnt him that point, he ached. Deciding a bit of stretching and exercise to loosen up might help, or at least that is what he told himself to keep his motivation, he started his morning climb. He kept climbing despite his aching muscles really pushing that extra point of endurance. He was going to have to climb a long way to get out of that hole even if he was able to start from half way up. He went for longer than he normally would, really trying to push himself. ¡°Climb levelled up climb level 8¡± Gar stopped his climb with the level up he was tired and at some point it had started raining again and he was already soaked. Gar had hoped to make some more writing sticks while he planned his day that wasn¡¯t going to happen with the weather stopping a fire. Briefly he considered a fire inside his shelter but that idea was quickly dismissed, while he had plenty of ventilation for the smoke he also had a floor of very dry very flammable pine needles and a low roof made of wood. So instead he sat in his shelter thinking about what else he would need to get out of the hole and what he would need when he was out. He dug through his pile of tools and found his pickaxe it was ready as he had made it a handle that was set near the entrance ready for when he went back in the cave. In finding the pickaxe he thought about all his stuff. It was a lot now and there was no way he was going to be able to easily carry it all, especially having put handles on a number of his tools they would take up a lot more space. He could always remove the handles again and make new ones later, what would be better was if he could find a way to carry more. It was difficult as he had no idea how far he would have to go to get to some sort of civilisation or over what sort of land. He had his sled which worked except it still took a decent amount of effort, so if his sled wouldn¡¯t work could he upgrade it to a cart. Previously he hadn¡¯t had the time, tools or resources to do it. His situation had changed though and he thought he could make it work. Where to start was the first question? Gar went with making the wheels as his starting point they were likely to be the hardest part so better to start with them and get them done. He still had plenty of the trunk of the tree he had cut down to use for the wood. He went to a section of the trunk about half a meter across or just a bit over and cut himself six disks each about as thick as his fist. More exercise with a large wood saw was far from ideal in Gars mind after his long morning climb, it would be worth it though so he continued on. He then found the smallest of his discs took a pin and pushed it into the centre, just enough so it stood on its own. He then tied a piece of string to it and cut it so the string didn¡¯t quite reach the edge of the disk with a small knot to tie his last writing stick and he was able to mark a perfect circle that fit inside the disc. Then lifting the pin and placing it in the centre of each of the discs he was able to mark out six identical sized circles, making sure to mark the centre with a cross each time so he could find it again. Then it was just a matter of bringing the wood down to the line he had marked. A knife made quick work of removing the bark then through knife and axe and saw he cut the wood down until it was close to the line. Unfortunately during that process he had split one wheel and taken a large chunk out of another far past the line, so he only had four left no more spared. ¡°Woodworking levelled up woodworking level 5¡± He had learnt from the process. Remove small bits at a time with smooth strokes keeping his tools nice and sharp, he shouldn¡¯t be using strength he needed to let the blade do the work. When he got close to the line he had marked he switched it up going from using blades to using files to slowly take off the last bit of wood getting as close to a perfect circle as he could. He worked slowly and methodically going from rougher down to finer files. Once he had the outside shape he used the pin and string to mark a much smaller circle in the centre this would be the hole for the axle to go through. Once marked he used his larger auger to put several holes in the smaller circle then used his chisels and knife to remove the rest, again finishing with the files to smooth it up. The four wheels where done even if it had taken all day to do. It was a bit early to go to sleep, Gar lay down in his bed anyway. Had he needed to spend a day making wheels? No not really, could he have gone back into the caves and either looked for another way out or opened up that hole? Most defiantly and it probably would have been a better use of his time. Except for one thing, he was terrified all the time. The fear stuck with him especially any time he left his base, he was not just taking days to craft and spend time at base because it was useful he was doing it because he needed it. Needed it to give the time to build up the courage again to go out. He used to work in an office and since he had been in this world he had nearly died so many times he had lost track. He had literally had to fight for his life and during all that he wasn¡¯t even sure that all his thoughts where his own. So had he needed to build wheels for a day? Yes he had needed a day to recover a day to bolster himself while keeping busy so his mind did not dwell on fear that was eating him up inside. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Gar kept his morning climb short he didn¡¯t want to be too tired for what he had planned for the day. He loaded himself with three full water bottles, a selection of nuts and berries, his map, a rope, spear and knife as well as his pickaxe. The rain had not let up so he hadn¡¯t been able to make any more writing sticks so he had a plan to deal with that, that in mind he also added a handful of dry pine needles a couple of flint stones and some sticks to his bag. He set out following his map through the caves the badgers surrounding him as usual. He made it to where he had to climb without incident, he climbed up in much the same way he had previously Bodger on his lap and all. The only difference had been that there was a rope tied around his waist, he was able to make the dismount onto the ledge slightly more gracefully. He turned and scanned the tunnel checking the noise he made on arrival hadn¡¯t attracted anything. Once sure he hadn¡¯t caught anything¡¯s attention he had Bodger keep watch on the tunnel as he turned back and looked down. His backpack as well as B1, B2 and B3 were waiting for him down the bottom. He took a couple of steps back braced himself then started pulling in the rope, first just taking in the slack then he was hauling. His bag came over the lip first followed by each of the badgers in turn. Once all of it was up he dropped the rope then untied it from the badger sending them to keep watch with Bodger once they were free, then he untied himself and finally his bag, coiling up the rope and putting it away. They adventured on to where the hole to the outside was. Gar dropped his bag next to it then he and the badgers continued on, he would be back he just wanted to see what was nearby first. They travelled several hundred meters taking a couple of turns with no splits or side tunnels, they turned and made their way back the way they had come. When they got to the corner before where Gar had left his bag he had B3 wait to act as an early warning system should something turn up. Once back at his bag he sat for a short break, he had been moving constantly to get there early in the day so he took a few minutes to get a drink and something to eat as well as a rest. With his rest over he was ready, he turned to the wall picked up his pickaxe and swung it. He brought it down as hard as he could just above the hole to the outside. The pickaxe bounced off with a loud ¡°TING¡±. Gar had not expected that his strength much higher than in his old world he was using the correct tool, he had expected to easily start smashing through the rock. He swung again and again until finally he could see he was having an effect. Cracks were showing in the rock, with his next swing he didn¡¯t focus just on strength he focused more on aiming his strike he wanted to hit directly on the crack. He swung and hit. ¡°New skill acquired mining level 1¡± The skill gain and the small pile of crumbling rock let him know he was on the right track so he started swinging again. Only this time he made sure to pay attention and try to pick out the weak points in the rock with each swing. He kept at it slowly widening the hole, first opening it down to the floor then making it wider and taller. Gar had been at it for hours he was tired and the ground was slippery from the rain coming in. He took a few steps away from the hole until the floor was dry and he sat down, back against the wall. He rummaged through his bag pulling out sticks, the pine needles and the couple of flints. Building a little pyramid of sticks he then started striking the flints together over the pine needles, catching the sparks. With a couple of minute¡¯s patient work he got an ember in the pine needles, after that it only took a few gentle breaths to turn it into a flame. The whole burning lot was then pushed into the base of the little pyramid. ¡°¡±Fire starting levelled up fire starting level 4¡± He had a little fire going, he sat there warming his hands not because he was cold, he had realised he didn¡¯t really feel hot or cold. Just holding his hands to the warmth of the fire seemed like the thing you did, it seemed normal and he craved any sense of normal. After a couple of minutes of that he got to the real reason he had bothered to bring all that stuff with him he started making some more writing sticks, it was too wet or unsafe to make a fire near his base however where he was it was dry there was nothing flammable and there was a hole to the outside where the smoke and gasses could vent. His stomach rumbled his body unconsciously associated fire with food so he regretted not bringing anything to cook with, he could have had a warm meal instead he made do with some cold nuts and berries. He sat and watched as the small fire burned down to nothing, he had made a good supply of writing sticks that would last him a while. 41: Equipment The hole in the rock was only a bit over half the size he wanted it, even so it was already much easier to look through and get a better sense of where it was located. He crawled closer and looked over the edge, only to quickly pull back. If anything his initial estimation had been under as he was more than half way up the cliff. Whatever the case it was a long way down he had never been one to fear heights and still even that brief look had freaked him out. Crawling slowly closer again he stuck his head out again only this time refraining from looking directly down, instead he looked to the sides looking for his camp so he could get an idea of where he was in relation to it. He found it far below and off to his left, he couldn¡¯t see it in detail at that distance but could make out the platform, the remains of the felled tree and on the far side what could only be his shelter. Gar shifted positions so he was sat cross legged by the hole not right on the edge but close enough that his knees and feet were getting wet from the rain. With one of his writing sticks he started to draw. From his position for the first time he had a view of the entire cenote. While he couldn¡¯t see everything in detail it was still good enough to see the main features of the area, so he was making a map for the first time of the entire hole. It was something he had wanted to do the entire time he had been there he had just thought he would do it by exploration on foot, it was only upon finding this opportunity that he realised this way was infinitely better. It also helped him assuage some of his lingering fears that he was making a mistake. He had been pretty sure he was in a hole but there before him was the proof of it, it wasn¡¯t just some weird valley or something he hadn¡¯t considered there was no easy way out on the other side cliffs surrounded him on all sides. There were also no manmade structures anywhere; no buildings, no roads, nothing to indicate any help. It meant that he had made the right choice in exploring the caves. He sat and drew adding details to his map until it grew too dark to see by, his dark vision let him see the map and what he was drawing just fine the problem was it didn¡¯t have the range to let him see what he needed to add to the map. The next morning Gar was up early the previous day had shown him that escape was nearing he had a way out that seemed much more realistic. He got to his climbing practice with a bit more enthusiasm than previously maintaining a big smile as he climbed. It was another dry but grey day so he started a fire and boiled some nuts and pods for breakfast. It was simple and didn¡¯t require his constant attention. He had been thinking about his final climb out, the rope was good except with no way to attach it from above he would need a way to fix it and himself to the rock as he climbed instead. It needed to be simple enough that he could do it while holding onto the rock face while still being strong enough to hold him should he fall. Drilling into the rock was not going to work, he had no drill and even if he did he wouldn¡¯t be stable enough on the rock face to do it. It needed to be kept it simple. He was reminded of a trip to a museum where he saw some old climbing gear; the safety equipment included a set of what looked to him like metal spikes he remembered wondering at the time how they worked. It was looking up at the cliff face that he realised that he had been thinking about them wrong. The cliff was covered in cracks and crevasses, he had even been using them in his climbing to wedge his hands or feet into to climb up. The pieces he had been remembering weren¡¯t spikes meant to go into the rock but metal wedges, hammer them into the cracks and they could hold. A hole in the wide end of the wedge to attach a rope too and you had safety while climbing simple enough to do even half way up a rock face. Gar was happy with the idea it was worth at least taking the time to test it. The problem was metal. To make metal wedges he would either have to sacrifice some of his tools for the metal or try to mine some ore from the caves and whichever of those he chose he didn¡¯t have the tools or the knowledge in how to shape metal. Simply getting a fire hot enough to work metal would be a challenge. So while metal was out the idea still held merit he just needed a different material to do the job. Wood could be shaped but would not be strong enough and would squish or split when hammered into the cracks. Stone was a resource that he had plenty of he even had tools to shape it, the problem would be how thin it would need to be. At a size thin enough to fit into most cracks the stone would be brittle and liable to break or shatter. So with wood and stone his most plentiful resources out, as well as metal he had to look at what he had left. Looking at Bodger stood nearby he briefly considered bone, it might work but it was quickly dismissed as he didn¡¯t know what bone was like to work with and the only bones he had where the badgers and they were using them. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Next considered was the piles of carapace, it was a strong and shapeable material he had excess of. The problem Gar could see with it was how thin it was he didn¡¯t think it could hold his weight and even if it did the bend it had when pressure was applied could cause it to pop out of any crack although it could also potentially help hold it in. It would be ideal if it was just a bit denser and thicker, it was the first material he was considering testing as he didn¡¯t have an immediate reason to dismiss it. Rummaging in the pile of solider ant parts for a few good pieces to test he came across something that seemed ideal. The solider ant mandibles, as much thicker and denser pieces he thought they could be just what he needed. He picked up a pair to experiment with, they didn¡¯t have the line about heat in their inspect results but they seemed to be made from the same material so Gar dropped them into the fire anyway. While they heated up Gar collected his conrex knife and his bigger knife, as well as a bucket of water. By the time he had sat back down next to the fire Gar was happy that enough time had passed so he pulled one of the mandibles out of the fire. It was hotter than the carapace pieces had gotten, still not too hot to handle. Gar started stretching out the mandible pulling it from its curved shape into a straight rod whilst smoothing the bumps and protrusions that were meant for grabbing back into the main shaft forming a straight and relatively even rod. After another heat Gar laid it on a flat stone then used his large knife to cut the mandible into three separate pieces, he dipping the knife into the bucket between the two cuts to draw out the heat from it and to protect the metal. While the material was still soft Gar pressed it between his large knife and the flat stone to create a thin wedge with a wide end. Putting down the tools he used the tip of his finger he opened up a hole in the wide end then manipulated the material to widen the hole until it was large enough to fit his rope through. Using his finger he smoothed it over so there were no rough edges to catch the rope on, taking particular care on the inside of the hole where the rope would pass through. The final step was flattening the wide end to create an area to hit with a hammer. He left it to cool and harden then it was time to test it out. Taking it over to the wall he found a crack and slid the wedge into it then using a rock, as he still hadn¡¯t put a handle on his hammer, he hammered the wedge in. Gar wiggled the wedge, it did not move. He tried pulling a bit harder, still nothing. Threading a rope through the hole and holding onto it he lifted his legs, it held and Gar was hanging there. The wedge held his weight it seemed to be working Gar just had one more test to do. He held the rope tightly then jumped dropping all his weight onto the wedge at once trying to simulate the jerk it might get if he fell. The wedge held he fell to the length of the rope where he was holding then hung there. He was happy to have tested the concept worked. Only he was going to have to trust the rest he made without testing each one as no matter what he tried he couldn¡¯t get that first wedge out again without breaking it. In some sense it was good as it showed how well it held, in another sense not being able to test something he was going to trust his life to made him nervous. With a proof of concept done and tested he spent the remainder of the morning using up all his Mega-ra solider ant mandibles to make more of the climbing wedges. He took his time making sure each one was smooth and perfectly shaped with evenly sized holes perfectly sized for his slumbering vine fibre rope. By the time he was done he had fifty-nine of them not including the one he had tested. If his estimates where right it would mean he had enough to put one about every ten meters which he hoped meant he would never be falling too far should he slip. Gar got up from where he sat gathered his spear and the badgers and headed into the forest he wanted something other than berries and nuts for lunch he knew he had things to do and couldn¡¯t spend the time trying to get a fish so he was going to make do with something he enjoys but had been going without recently as he was confident he could get it quickly. A short walk into the woods and he found one of what he was looking for, a pine tree similar to the one he had cut down. A few swings of his spear and he was able to cut down several small branches full of fresh green pine needles. Then gathering them up it was back to base for some pine needle tea. He sat and made his tea as he ate a lunch of nuts and berries. The tea was good but the meal was just repetitive by that point, Gar sighed and accepted it as part of a survival situation he couldn¡¯t be picky he was lucky he had as much as he had. As he finished his first cup of tea he already had water boiling for a second. He let the pine needles sit in the water as he set about putting a handle on his hammer. He had chosen the claw hammer head to use as it had a bit more weight to it than the ball hammer but wasn¡¯t as heavy as the mallet head. It went together much the same as the other tools he had put handles on just on a smaller scale. So he sat by the fire and drank through the pot of tea he had made as he worked. He gave the hammer a few good swings then tapped it against a rock just to test the head was on secure and to get a feel for the handle. It was the second one he had made as he had gone too far and made the first one too short to be comfortable that second one seemed to have done the trick. 42: Discovery With rope, wedges and hammer done the final piece of equipment he needed for the climb was something to attach him to all of it, a harness. Getting one of his shorter lengths of rope Gar started experimenting leaning heavily on his knot working skill to try and work out a secure and comfortable harness. The first iteration was poor, simply a rope around his waist with a loop at the front to thread rope through or to tie onto. The next iteration went round his waist and between his legs that was not an experience Gar wanted to repeat, hanging from that crushed things uncomfortably tight and still pulled in his waist. He had to try numerous variations to ensure it could tighten where necessary and spread out where his weight sat when he was hanging by it, all while still allowing freedom of movement. ¡°Knot working levelled up knot working level 4¡± The final version went round his waist then round the top of each thigh with a second band on each leg just above the knee. It also had straps that went over each shoulder then back down to the waist with cross straps between them front and back. At first he had tried to make it all adjustable and easy to get on and off, the task got much easier when he gave up on those ideas realising they weren¡¯t necessary. The harness was made sized specifically to him and he literally tied himself into it. Over all it was a relatively comfortable design that didn¡¯t stop any of his movement, he had even tested it by hanging from the wedge still stuck in the wall. While he still had it on he added a few wire loops along his right thigh to act as a holder for his hammer as he climbed. Feeling good about his set up he slipped his hammer into the loops and started climbing to properly test it out. He had to make a few minor adjustments to the sizing to comfortably enable full motion when climbing while still holding him secure. He also found his hammer stayed in place as long as he didn¡¯t end up all the way upside down and while the hammer did come out smoothly it took careful placement to get it back in which seemed like a fair trade off particularly as the wire kept the hammer in line with his leg as he climbed making sure it stayed out of the way. Gar spent the rest of the day doing small chores and tasks, nothing stressful it was time to relax. He made some more writing sticks, refilled his water barrel, copied his map onto his wall, tidied up his stuff so it was a little more organised and then he had an early night. The rain had started up again at some point in the night and by the time Gar awoke it was nothing short of a full blown storm with thunder and lightning and pounding rain. When he had woken up enough to register it Gar was surprised by how he had managed to sleep through the racket. He decided it would be safer to skip his morning climb he wouldn¡¯t even attempt his escape climb in that kind of weather so there was no point in risking it then. Instead he gathered up his supplies and headed underground away from the storm. Hoisting his pack he made a run for the cave entrance ending with something between slipping and a dive into the small cave entrance. For once Gar was happy the only clothes he had where a pair of trousers because even in that short dash he had gotten soaked and skin dries quicker and easier than clothes. He had been thinking about where he would go the previous day, he could go back to the hole and continue widening it or exploring the tunnels near there see if he can find a place even higher up. Well the storm meant it was too wet to work on the hole and while he could have explored the tunnel near there, there was another option. There was still one more tunnel off the cave snails cavern that he had never gone down so for all he knew there might be a route all the way to the surface down there. He wouldn¡¯t know unless he looked so he was going to take the day to look, he had already decided that unless he found something promising he would only spend a single day on it. With a way out becoming more and more viable he was more and more reluctant to spend time on other things. As he entered the new tunnel he was back to full caution badgers formed up around him moving slowly to keep the noise down. It was only a short tunnel before it opened up into another large cavern, except in that one the floor had a distinct downwards slope. It was filled with the cave snails with even more of the moss and fungus they seemed to eat everywhere. Having grown accustom to the snails ignoring him Gar got a shock when crossing the cavern and one of the snails looked directly at him and seemed to splutter at him. Gar couldn¡¯t say he had any experience with snail body language but he was sure that one was giving him a warning. Not wanting to cause any trouble with the previously docile snails Gar backed up keeping an eye on the snail warning him whilst being more aware of the snails around him. Gar was unsure what was going on, what made that particular snail different to the others. It wasn¡¯t what Gar had intended to be doing it was however important enough to be worth investigating, he had to pass snails every time he went in or out of the caves if something made them aggressive he needed to know. Turning on observe Gar started looking the snail over, he hadn¡¯t paid much attention to the snails since he had decided they were docile. From what he had seen this one didn¡¯t look any different same rough size same colour there didn¡¯t seem to be any obvious sign of injury. Perhaps he had been wrong about it being an act of aggression perhaps it was sick or something else, although Gar didn¡¯t think so even after they had backed off until the snail was only just inside the limits of his dark vision it was still watching them its eyes moving independently, between Gar and the badgers. Perhaps if it wasn¡¯t the snail itself it was something about its surroundings. It was sat in the middle of a rather large and thick patch of fungus, looking closely he spotted the cause. He probably would of overlooked it as some kind of mushroom except his observe had labelled them. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Cave snail egg level N/A¡± What had appeared to be another fungus growing in the patch were actually eggs and there were a lot of them, little brown balls about the size of a golf ball. The more he looked the more he realised how many there where the entire patch of fungus was covered in them. It seemed far too many for a single snail even one of the cave snails size. Could it be that the cave snails where communal and that patch was some sort of nursery with eggs from a whole group of snails? Gar was interested but wasn¡¯t going to spend the days needed watching the snails to find out, he had realised the cause for the snails aggression and his mistake. He had been about to walk right across the egg patch. Gar moved on again cautiously making his way round the patch all while keeping an eye on the cave snail and where it was at. As long as he and the badgers didn¡¯t get too close to the patch the snail seemed content to just watch them. Gar decided to leave observe on after that to help him pick out any more egg patches. The decision also had added benefits. ¡°Observe levelled up observe level 5¡± Gar spotted a couple more egg patches as he made his way around the room. That cavern was much larger than the original cave snail cavern, it was also different in that unlike the original that had the caves coming off it spread out around the room, this cavern had four tunnels leading off it other than the one he had come in through and all four of them where near the far side from where he had entered and where right next to each other. He was split between exploring the tunnels and staying in the cavern to find out more about the snails. Previously he had just thought of them as moving and eating and hadn¡¯t considered them further. Having been shown how obviously wrong that was he wanted to find out more another part of him wanted to explore further and fill out his map. In the end it wasn¡¯t really a decision he had made up his mind from the start while he wanted to study the snails they offered no chance of escape while the tunnels did even if it was only a small chance. With the four possible tunnels all having a downwards slope and with no other reason to pick one over the other he fell back on his old plan and picked the left most tunnel. He walked cautiously along the tunnel, it was much taller than it was wide and gave Gar an odd feeling of being very small. The first time it happened Gar wasn¡¯t sure what it was, to his right the wall didn¡¯t look right, he moved closer to investigate but was moving very slowly ready for something to jump out at him. It was only when he was right on top of it that he recognised what it was. The wall between the tunnel he was in and the one next to it was only maybe a meter thick he was looking at a hole between the two tunnels. As he continued on he saw more holes some bigger some smaller, some large enough he could fit through them. It was only when the wall on his right ended after a couple hundred meters that he realised what was going on. It wasn¡¯t a wall at all and it wasn¡¯t two separate tunnels it had been a line of stalactites and stalagmites that had grown from floor to ceiling then joined to the ones next to them. The holes hadn¡¯t been where rock had come out, they had been where it hadn¡¯t filled in yet. It fascinated Gar and he went back to have another look at it, to look at the gaps, the size of the pillars and think about how many years it had taken to build itself. As he moved on he saw more and more colossal stalactites and stalagmites, none quite like the initial dividing wall. They were all things that now he was taking the time to look at and pay attention to where incredible, the century¡¯s it must have taken for them to form. He travelled for several hours and the tunnel had opened up at some point along the way into a massive seemingly endless cavern that had been sloping down all the way, he was deep deep underground. The other thing was the stalagmites had increased it was like walking through a stone forest they were so tall they disappeared into the gloom at the edge of his dark vision far above his head. He had no idea how high the ceiling was all he knew was occasionally if he looked up he would see just the end of a stalactite seemingly hanging from nothing over his head. It was an eerie place, Gar found it amazing and terrifying at the same time there were too many places to hide and the sound of dripping water was coming from all around him. He was keeping the badgers close out of fear of losing them in and amongst the stalagmites. At times his little group were reduced to traveling in single file between the great stone pillars. It was when going between one of these tight spaces that Gar noticed it. In fact the space was tight enough that Gar had to turn to the side to fit through. Just above waist height on the stalagmite that he was facing was a carving in the stone. It was only a few lines and circles but it was distinctly done on purpose by some thinking creature and not just some accidental scratches. Gar copied it down in one corner of his map. He would have liked to have marked it on his map to find it again except he knew it would be like marking a single tree in a forest on his map, it would be of no use in finding anything and most likely just confuse things. Gar activated observe as he moved on, no longer just looking for any dangers or tunnels but also looking for more carvings. 43: Carvings He found his second carving a couple of minutes later, it sat on another pillar at just above waist height, it was very similar to the first one in fact he only noticed the difference when he held up his copy next to the new one. Carefully he noted down the new carving next to the original one. Gar looked behind him looking for where the previous carving was only to realise if he got down to eye level with the carving he could see the previous one and despite the fact he had been weaving back and forth to travel between the two carvings there was actually a clear straight path between the two. Getting down on his knees so he was at the appropriate height Gar started looking forwards trying to find the next carving, it didn¡¯t take long to spot it. He moved forwards following the carvings noting them down as he did. It took about ten carvings noted down before Gar started to recognise the patterns in them. They were some sort of rudimentary writing or pictographic language. Most of the carvings had been slightly different from the others with very few being the same. From what he could tell the top half of the carving indicated the direction he had come from and the bottom half would indicate the direction he needed to go to the next carving. Gar was able to start moving quicker through the cave as there was always a straight path between the carvings and while he couldn¡¯t read them he could at least follow enough to find the right direction. He was of course still looking out for any more carvings that he may have missed. Over the next fifteen minutes Gar felt he had covered more distance than in the previous hour, he suspected he had gotten lost in amongst the stalagmites without even realising it. With clear straight paths marked by the carvings he could get back on track. A while later and he found another section to the carving, he had one section indicating where he had just came from and another indicating the way forwards but between them was a third section pointing to somewhere behind him and off to his right. Looking and yes there was another carving. It seemed that there were several different paths through the stalagmites and they were converging. On what he didn¡¯t know, with a bit of luck he would find out. He continued on noting down any new carvings he came to. As he went several more paths seemed to converge onto his and the paths even seemed to be getting wider. Which didn¡¯t make sense why would the stalagmites be further apart? It was upon thinking about this that he used observe to look more closely at the floor as he went. He noticed signs of where stalagmites would have been or where very small ones where forming. It was as if someone had moved them out the way. He came to a point where five paths converged except the carvings weren¡¯t on a stalagmite instead it was a perfectly cylindrical pillar all one piece of solid stone perfectly merged with the floor. It must have been carved out of a stalagmite except someone had gone to great trouble with it as he could not see a single tool mark. There was a ring round the pillar at the same height as the other carvings that were left bare except for the directional carvings. Above and below that was completely covered in what Gar could only assume to be decorative carvings. He continued following the marked path, only the carvings were all on pillars the same as the first from then on. Gar was now eager to see what was at the end of this path some form of people had made this path and that was all he had been looking for since he arrived in this world. He passed twenty-three pillars before he found where they ended. It was a large smooth stone wall shaped directly from the rock with a stone door set right in the middle of it more of the decorative carving round the frame. Gar approached it slowly watching for any dangers and half expecting some sort of official or guard to appear to either question him or let him through. No such person appeared, no people at all appeared as Gar walked right up to the door. It was a large door, oddly proportioned, it was a single door only slightly taller than he was and the same if not more wide. Not knowing what else to do Gar knocked on the door it hurt his knuckles and made a dull thudding sound that echoed in the cave. Gar waited for a response, a couple of minutes later and no response had come so he uses the butt of his spear to knock again but harder. Gar was still waiting five minutes later. Feeling he had been polite but figured his situation warranted a bit of rudeness especially if whoever was here wasn¡¯t even going to hear him out. He pushed the door expecting it to be locked or at least heavy, so he almost fell through when it swung open light as a feather. Regaining his balance Gar let the door swing right open as he just looked inside. Beyond the door was completely different to the cave he was in, it was a room long and rectangular all right angles and straight lines. While it was the same stone as was around him none of it on the other side was natural, it was precise and sculpted. Gar stepped through as the badgers followed behind, the door swung shut behind him. He turned to look at it the wall looked almost identical to its other side clean stone with the single door and its decorated frame. There were brackets carved into the door and frame to hold a bar to lock it shut, the bar was not in site. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Gar looked back around, while the wall behind him may have been smooth bare stone the rest of the walls where not they were covered in carvings. Gar wanted to move closer to have a look but he was still in an unknown place and the owners still hadn¡¯t shown themselves. Down the left side where three arches with two down the right and the only other door was set in the middle at the far end. Gar decided he would check each of the arches then place a badger at each door to warn him before he let himself investigate the carvings. Gar moved to the first arch on his right. The arch was twice as wide as he was but Gar needed to duck low to be able to see through. Inside there where what Gar would guess to be stone benches and tables carved straight from the floor, with what could be a cooking area over in one corner. He would investigate further later the main thing was that there was nothing moving or living there. The next room on the right seemed to have been some sort of storage area it was full of stone racks and shelves, Gar had to take a few steps in to be sure but again it was empty. The first room on the left hand side was difficult to tell what it was supposed to be from the door way. All he could see was a corridor straight in front of him and a sub dividing wall coming from the left. He crept forwards into the room until he could peer around the dividing wall, it was empty. It was a space about two meters wide before there was another dividing wall. Along the back there was an alcove carved into the rock fairly low to the floor and not as wide as the little room. There were also pegs along the far wall ready to hang things on. Continuing slowly down there where more identical little areas. Gar still couldn¡¯t work out what their purpose was. The middle arch led to a room that was only divided into two with each of the sections having a stone desk, stool and even a stone bed. At least that is what Gar suspected the items to be as the proportions of things all seemed off to Gar too low and too wide for what he was used to. The final arch led to a room that was a mirror image of the first room on that side and again empty. In fact there was nothing in the entire place that hadn¡¯t been carved directly out of the rock. It had an eerie almost ghostly feeling to the place. Gar was pretty certain that this place had been made by some race that wasn¡¯t human, or gargoyles for that matter things just weren¡¯t sized right for their proportions. Whatever race had made it, it also seemed they had abandoned it and taken everything that they could with them. With the area cleared Gar was happy to start looking a bit more closely at the carvings on the wall. He stationed B1 and B2 at each of the doors to warn him if anything entered, then he took a closer look starting with the first section of wall on the left. There where carvings from floor to ceiling and unlike the repeating patterns of the pillars there where actual figures and full scenes depicted, very mundane things the same group digging then shaping and building. It was only when he recognised the doorways did he realise it was the building of the place he was in. The people in the carvings looked human-ish it was only when one was depicted going through the door that he could get a sense of scale to realise that the people where much shorter and wider than humans. With those proportions human like features and long beards Gar started referring to them as dwarves even if it was only in his mind. The story went on to show how two groups would live and work in the rooms with at least one of the groups remaining on site at all times acting as guards securing the place against monsters and checking any people that came through. While one group was guarding the other would go out to mine and bring back resources, carving the pillars and marking the paths as they went. Below each scene was a more complete form of the writing he had seen on the pillars, perhaps it wasn¡¯t rudimentary merely a form of short hand used when marking the way Gar could have spent hours examining every part of it. He would have liked to copy all the writing down and try to figure out its meaning but he didn¡¯t have enough space on the skin to add the writing and keep adding to his map and at that moment the map was much more important. As much as he could have kept looking at the carvings there was still more to explore and see. He had no idea what was beyond the other door the only clue he had was, that was where more dwarves come from and returned to in the carvings. Gar was excited for what he would find. He prepared himself standing a couple of meters back and slightly off to one side of the door three badgers in front of him and B2 right next to the door. B2 moved slowly forwards and nudged the door open. The first thing Gar noticed was the light he could see the entire area all lit up. It wasn¡¯t bright but between the light and his dark vision he could see everything clearly. With nothing having jumped out at him having opened the door Gar moved through it to take it all in. He was in a crevasse several hundred meters long and easily a hundred or more meters from top to bottom. He was stood on a walkway at one end about half way up. The walkway extended along both sides of the crevasse with rooms and buildings carved directly into the rock behind it. There were more walkways both above and below him lots more. 44: Dwarven The light was coming from patches of moss that where growing everywhere, from their regularity he guessed that they had been cultivated as street lighting and then grown out of control when the place was abandoned because just like the rooms behind him the whole place was empty he couldn¡¯t see a single person. He started walking along one side checking each building as he passed. There where homes, shops, businesses all empty of everything not fixed to the stone. In all the businesses he found intricate carvings in the walls telling their story it seemed history was important to these people. He started noticing details like when a place extended it dug deeper into the rock except they didn¡¯t hide the seams. A nub of the old wall would be left just enough to see the broken carvings then the carvings would be carefully reproduced and extended over the new walls. It was fascinating and beautiful to Gar he would have liked to have known that place when it was populated and alive. He could see the warmth the place would have had in the care and attention put into the details, as it was it just felt cold and dead. Gar made a full loop round the crevasse at his level he had passed many buildings all empty frames most he could identify their use, while some had weird stone furniture and facility¡¯s and even looking at the carvings he lacked the context to work out what they were for. He had passed stair cases to go up and down levels and had ignored them until he had done his full lap. He then stood against a railing looking both up and down he wanted to explore more however it was already afternoon from his best estimate and it would take weeks to explore every level of the place. Where he was most interested in was the top and bottom levels if there was anything interesting he felt it should be at one of those. From what he had gleamed about these dwarves history was important to them as was hard work. They would have started from the bottom then worked up therefore making the oldest buildings the ones at the bottom and for a culture that valued history that would be where they would keep anything important or interesting. The logic seemed good to Gar. So not knowing when he would get a chance to go back there he would head straight to the bottom. He started looking for the stairs that would take him down. There was no one staircase that led from the top to bottom they were staggered between the layers so that Gar was constantly walking back and forth working his way down. As he went he noticed that it was getting darker it was hard to tell at first as there was so much of the glowing moss and he could see in pitch black which activated automatically in any dark environment. However as he went further and further down it became more and more noticeable when he was on the final few layers before the bottom the light seemed to stabilise although the light seemed to be of a grey colour that seemed familiar he just couldn¡¯t place where it was from. The badgers seemed to be picking up on something as well if he didn¡¯t know better he would say they were moving smoother and quieter than normal. Then he was on the bottom floor and seemingly minor things where forgotten. He moved into the closest building to check it out. As before he planned to give the building a quick check for anything living then go back through it checking it out in more detail. It didn¡¯t take long to realise that the buildings where much bigger there more like whole complexes to themselves than just individual buildings. From what he could tell the one he had ended up in first was a multi-generational family home. The next one was a restaurant that could have easily seated a hundred people. It was taking too long to check each one and Gar did not want to miss anything by skipping checking some. So instead he split his forces he sent B1 and B2 ahead to do the initial check through of the next building while he finished checking out the kitchen that would allow him not to have to go through each building twice. It seemed that these larger places hadn¡¯t been cleaned out as thoroughly as the other places as Gar found a metal ladle and two forks all still in good shape along with a few other metal scraps, all of them went into his bag to be used again later. The next building had been cleared by B1 and B2 by the time he got to it, it was another family complex and in what he thought was a child¡¯s room he found a crumpled maroon shirt even though it was too small for him he tool it anyway as he might find a use for the material. The next building must have been large as B1 and B2 where only just coming out of it as Gar exited the one he was doing. He watched as they entered into the next building along then looked up at the one they had just cleared. It was much more ornately decorated even being made with stones of various colours a jet black and a dark green neither of which he had seen anywhere. It had been set into the buildings front and used to build a short set of steps up to the front door. It just screamed some sort of government or leadership building. There was something carved into a large slab of black stone set above the door Gar couldn¡¯t read it so pushed the door and headed in knowing that it had already been cleared meant he could be a bit more thorough of his searching of each room and not worry too much about the noise he was making. Gar moved quickly through the entrance room and then moved through a series of rooms that where a mix of offices and meeting rooms. At the end of the first corridor he came to a large room more ornately decorated than the others he had seen so far. With more colours and shades of highly polished stone, there was no sign of the natural stone of the area. In the middle of the room was a large round table with five, what only could be called thrones around it. Each throne was carved from a single piece of a different type of stone, each one ornately carved and decorated. Four of them polished to a high shine and smooth the fifth matt black with a textured finish yet no less beautiful each a work of art in its own right. The room was large yet other than the table and the thrones it was empty he could see on the walls hooks and fasteners where tapestries and wall hangings should have gone yet there was nothing. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. He moved closer to the thrones, going round touching and examining each one in turn. Sat on the seat of the black throne was a box, well more of a chest. Slightly larger than a shoebox Gar picked it up only to be surprised by how light it was. He tried to open it, despite no visual lock it would not open. Gar was aware time was passing so he put it in his bag to deal with later, leaving the room with the thrones he moved deeper into the building. It was then he had moved onto the second corridor deeper in. He pushed open a door with the two badgers a few steps behind him and he froze. The grey light was everywhere in the room and Gar finally realised what it was death mana so thick in the air it was visible without mana sight active. Alone it probably wouldn¡¯t have been enough to remind Gar it was what else was in the room that really drove it home for him. In the middle of the room was a pile of corpses, dwarf corpses. That wasn¡¯t the worst part sleeping like the dead atop the pile was a beast. Unwilling to move Gar just stood there looking at the curled up beast. How the badgers could have missed this he didn¡¯t know. Needing more information Gar activated observe and nearly crapped himself. He had expected the beast to get labelled. ¡°Death dog level 6¡± What he wasn¡¯t expected was for every corpse in the pile to get marked. ¡°Zombie (dwarf) level 3¡± ¡°Zombie (dwarf) level 2¡± Each and every corpse was a level 2 or 3 zombie. Gar started backing up ever so slowly closing the door. Until the beast on top lifted both its canine heads, its four eyes staring into Gar¡¯s two it let out a loud bark and things started happening fast. The death dog leapt to the floor and zombies started pulling themselves out of the pile, standing up and shambling towards the door. Gar saw none of this as he was already running. He heard more barks from other rooms answering the first. There was more than one of these things did they all have their own pile of zombies? That was answered rather quickly when he looked over his shoulder and saw zombies coming out of doors all along the corridor. Resolved not to look back again Gar kept running, he was out pacing the badgers but he really didn¡¯t have the luxury of worrying about that. The one bit of luck on Gars side was it seemed the zombies were filling the corridors blocking the faster death dogs from getting to him. He was almost to the front door he could hear the death dogs still barking behind him. What made his heart drop was he could also hear more barking in front of him. He rounded a corner and could see the door he could also see through the window next to it the zombies outside waiting for him. It was only then that he realised how screwed he really was, he was in a trap. It had been less than a minute since the death dog had started barking, so the only way zombies could have come out of another building and spread out like that would be if they were moving before the barking started it had been planned. Gar hadn¡¯t explored enough of the building to be happy to take another corridor so he did the only thing he could think of. He kept running at full pace straight at the door, at the very last moment he lowered his shoulder and rammed the door. The stone door swung open easily and slammed hard into two zombies that had been too close. The zombies went flying having not braced for an impact. Gar used this brief opening to slip through the zombie line and ran for the stairs. He ran straight past the stairs as he saw another death dog prowling behind a group of zombies at the top of the stairs. Gar was really worried he had come down the last set of stairs so he was near the end of the crevasse he was seriously running out of places to go. With nowhere to really go Gar looked back, he had observe and mana sight going anything that might give him an advantage. Mana sight was next to useless with the thick death mana in the air the zombies and even the death dogs just disappeared into it. Only when focusing on them could he see a mix of something else flowing in the death dogs with the death mana. No wonder his badgers had been fooled with no eyes or other organs he had suspected they used some form of mana vision and if they did curled up on top of zombies in the fog of death mana even the death dogs would be invisible to them. Thinking that, he realised the badgers weren¡¯t beside him. B1 and B2 where further down the street only just coming out of the building they had been in. It took a moment to find Bodger and B3 because they were in amongst the horde of zombies. Gar worried for their safety before realising the zombies weren¡¯t paying any attention in fact as he watched he saw one zombie trip over B3. It wasn¡¯t too much of a leap in logic to think that perhaps the badgers were as invisible to the zombies as the zombies had been to the badgers. Gar had a few moments the zombies where slow and he had opened up a bit of a gap. Gar studied his options looking for an opportunity. It seemed the zombies where converging on him but not as one cohesive mass they were moving in groups, not far enough apart for him to dash between but if he could disrupt one group it might be enough. Each group had a death dog with it. The death dogs where ugly things all black with matted fur coated in blood and other unidentifiable substances, fur sticking out at odd angles and most striking two heads each uglier than the other and both twice as mean. They prowled behind their little group of zombies almost herding them towards him not that the zombies needed much encouragement. 45: Trapped Gar made a plan, it wasn¡¯t a good one, it was the only chance he had and he knew that he was going to give it everything he had. Except he had to wait he couldn¡¯t make his move to soon he needed the one on the stairs to come down first. Gar stopped moving letting everything get closer. He could see it was working the death dog was wavering its group of zombies more than half way down the stairs. Gar waited longer, it was hard not to run, the groups of zombies where getting closer together as they converged on him. He just needed to wait a little longer. The first of the zombies from the stairs were down on the ground, the closest death dog turned one head and growled at them. A few moments later and all except a few stragglers where off the stairs Gar just needed the death dog to move, it was pacing back and forth halfway up the stairs. The zombies where still getting closer the ones from the stairs advancing as well. Then the death dog closest to the group from the stairs turned fully and started snarling at the zombies. Gar had been right about him being no match for the death dogs speed because as soon as the dog had started snarling at its group of zombies the one from the stairs leapt from where it was on the stairs over the heads of its dwarf zombies and was right in front of the other death dog that had snarled and snarled right back at it. Both dogs¡¯ zombies stopped and started to mill around seemingly unsure what to do. It was a perfect opportunity Gar couldn¡¯t afford to miss he wouldn¡¯t get another. The biggest flaw in his plan had been that it relied on the badgers being as invisible to the death dogs as they were to the zombies and he had not been able to confirm that. While he had been acting as bait he had the badgers moving into position. While they struggled with seeing the zombies in amongst the thick death mana in the air, if Gar took over more control personally it alleviated some of the difficulty and he had been able to test a bit and it seemed the death dogs had enough life in them that the badgers could pick them out once they were moving and no longer curled up on a pile of zombies. Gar had had B1 and B2 move quietly along the street so they were close to the base of the stairs. Just before he made his move he had them slip in amongst the zombies by the base of the stairs. With the death dog from the stairs and the next one closest to it distracted snarling at each other Gar targeted the next dog along, he had Bodger and B3 slip in amongst its zombies and move as close as possible. Then Gar started the action and things got chaotic quickly. B1 and B2 started slashing about themselves with their claws aiming for the tendons in the zombies ankles, this caused a commotion in the stair death dog¡¯s zombies as they fell and knocked more zombies over. The dog turned one head to look at its zombies, sensing weakness the death dog it had been snarling at leapt at it. The stair death dogs other head had still been staring it down so leapt back at it in return, their zombies all started turning to help there masters. As this was going on Bodger and B3 had gotten right in front of the next death dog along, when it turned to look at the fighting pair next to it Bodger and B3 came out from among the zombies and dashed for either side of the death dog. Just as Gar had hoped it didn¡¯t seem bothered by them it simply let out a confused bark as they ran by. That was until in unison they turned and snapped at its back legs both badgers biting down hard. The death dog let out a howl of pain, Bodger and B3 continued moving making their way to the stairs. Gar hadn¡¯t waited to see if his plan worked it was his only hope so the moment the badgers had moved Gar was running for the slight gap between the last two groups of zombies. His plan worked better than he could have hoped the gap opened up before him as the zombies turned to help their master. Gar ran the four badgers already ahead up the stairs. He leapt over the pile of crippled zombies at the base of the stairs landing hard he felt the jolt in his legs. Ignoring it he starts running up the stairs taking them two or three at a time. A few steps up he is face to face with one of the straggler zombies that hadn¡¯t had time to come off the stairs, Gar kept running bowling over the smaller zombie and sending it tumbling to the floor. Stepping over it Gar gave it a hard kick sending it rolling down the stairs into the zombies that were already starting to follow him. There was chaos at the bottom of the stairs between the injured dog and the fighting ones there where groups of zombies not moving in sync with the rest. Even still some death dogs had herded their zombies through the mess and where coming after him. Gar was just glad the death dogs where still herding their zombies instead of coming after him themselves because if they did he would be screwed. Gar caught up to the badgers on the walkway to the next set of stairs, he slowed down to match their pace he had a long way to go upstairs he wouldn¡¯t last running at full pace. Gar had to turn to go up the next set of stairs so he used the opportunity to glance behind him. His group had managed to open up a bit of space between them and the zombies, each group of zombies with its death dog behind hurrying them along. Except for one death dog that seemed to be pushing its way through and snapping at any zombies blocking it. Gar was fairly certain he recognised it. Yes it was the death dog from the stairs, the one he had left fighting the other dog, the one that had its zombies crippled. That had been his mistake. He had needed to it was what had given him the chance at an opportunity to slip through and had also stalled zombies at the bottom of the stairs. It also meant that without any zombies to control it was free to come after Gar by itself and it seemed to want revenge for its zombies. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Gar sped up again chucking two badgers forwards as he went before picking up the other two and full out sprinting. He knew he couldn¡¯t out run the dog but he wanted as much space as possible between himself and the zombies before the dog caught up so that he had as much time as possible to deal with the single death dog before the rest caught him. Gar made it to the top of the next set of stairs before the death dog caught him. It bit at the back of his thigh tearing a chunk out and sending Gar to the floor dropping B1 and B3 who he had been carrying. Gar rolled on the ground missing the bite from the second head as the first ate the piece of him it had got. His leg burned but he ignored it as the two heads focused on him again. He was able to get the shaft of his spear in between him and the death dog just in time pressing against the beast¡¯s necks as the heads snapped down at him. It was standing over him as he pressed back, its front paws scratching at Gars chest. Gar could see the intelligence in the creatures eyes as it realised it couldn¡¯t reach his face and neck it then turned its attention to the hands that were stopping it. Just before Gar could start losing fingers he was saved by Bodger. The death dog had run straight past the skeletal badger on the stairs in its desire to get to Gar. So Bodger was coming up directly behind the death dog as it stood over Gar. Bodger found a vulnerable target hanging between the creature¡¯s legs and bit down on it gelding the creature in one motion. Gar didn¡¯t know what happened he had just ordered the badgers any and all of them to attack any vulnerable point they could. Gar knew the moment Bodger attacked one head of the death dog shivered and whimpered while the other one let out an ear splitting high pitched howled the body sagging limp trying to curl in on itself. Gar raised his feet up to the dogs body then kicked out with both feet while pushing off with his arms. He launched the death dog it sored down the stairs then out over the railing before dropping out of view. ¡°You have killed a level 6 death dog 15 experience awarded¡± Gar didn¡¯t look at what happened to it despite being curious, he patted Bodgers head as he thanked it for saving him. Bodger just dropped what it had bitten off. Gar shuddered realising what had happened to the death dog. Putting it out of his mind he rolled onto his knees, he had to keep moving more where coming. Using his spear as a walking stick he pushed himself up to his feet, Gar had to stop to take a breath after that felt like a monumental task. Then he was limping on, he ignored the pain in his leg and just pushed on as fast as he could. He went up several more flights of stairs until he finally had to stop. He had made a decent gap between him and the zombies but his leg stung and it was getting worse. Pushing down his trousers he looked at his wound. It wasn¡¯t that deep just a small piece of flesh torn out of his thigh the wound was jagged and was turning black and necrotic. That worried Gar there must have been something in death dog bites that kills flesh and it was spreading. Gar grabbed a water bottle from his bag took a swig then started pouring the water over the wound trying to clean out any saliva or anything from the wound, it stung and Gar flinched several times as he added more water. The wound needed more it needed proper care and bandaging. He did not have the luxury of that he was running out of time he could hear the zombies getting closer. He pulled up his trousers and started hobbling along again, his spear used more as a crutch than a weapon at that point. There was no concern about out pacing the badgers at that point he just needed to stay ahead of the zombies. There was no way if they caught up that Gar was getting away again and he knew that. So he kept going layer after layer, step after step. Gar practically wanted to vomit by the time he got to the right layer. The zombies weren¡¯t far behind him at that point, he had been slowing down because of his leg and getting tired from all the stairs. He could hear the death dogs bellow driving the zombies on as fast as they could they were getting excited they knew he was slowing knew they were getting close and that he was injured. Gar kept on he could see the door, then he was through it out of the death mana filled area. He hoped the death dogs and the zombies would stop there but he wasn¡¯t going to take chances he slipped out the other door. Before he went further he stopped briefly. The door could be blocked from the inside with a bar except he didn¡¯t have a bar and he wanted to be on the outside. He pulled a length of rope from his bag, made a loop, opened the door slightly then hooked the rope over the bracket for the bar on the door and on the wall. Pulling the loop tight closed the door on the rope. Cutting off the excess he put it away in his bag. The door could still open a little but not enough for anything to follow him, and none of those chasing him were smart enough to unhook it, he hoped. So it should give him a few minutes at least before they could break it or get lucky and knock it off. 46: Wounded Still not satisfied he was safe Gar kept moving he wanted to be well away from that place. His pace was slowed but following the markings meant he was actually able to leave the forest of stalagmites much quicker than he had crossed it earlier. He was glad he had noted down the carvings on his way in otherwise he wasn¡¯t sure he would have found the right path. By the time he was out of the cavern with the stalagmite forest he could no longer hear the zombies and death dogs he still wasn¡¯t willing to relax, he forced himself to move as fast as he could he was still getting slower as the pain in his leg was growing. He had to pull himself through the final small tunnel with his arm the bite in his thigh making him unable to crouch. He got outside and it was dark he had been slowed so much it was well into the night his dark vision compensated for it easily. At some point the storm had broken leaving clear skies for the first time in a while. Gar had the badgers help as he blocked the cave entrance with stones for the first time in a while, he was hopeful he had lost the death dogs but he wasn¡¯t taking chances. He stationed B3 right outside the cave to watch and to get him if there was any sound or movement or anything really, no chances taken. Stumbling over to his camp he started a fire and put some water in a pot to boil. He then ate and drank until he was full. Unable to put it off any longer he pulled down his trousers and looked at his leg. The wound had picked up dirt, fibres from his trousers and crusted blood as he ran. There was also disturbing bits of flaking black flesh in it. He started by pouring water over it trying to rinse as much of the mess off as he could. When it seemed no more would come off with just pouring water he took the shirt he had found and cut it into strips, the strips then went into the pot of boiling water. After a couple of minutes boiling he fished them out all but one where hung near the fire to dry, the one he hadn¡¯t was used as a cloth to keep cleaning. He started further out cleaning the dried blood from his leg then worked in towards the wound, rinsing the cloth in the boiling water regularly. As he got closer he found out why the pain had been getting worse there was an area of black dead skin around the wound that defiantly hadn¡¯t been there earlier. The job of cleaning got harder as the black skin would flake under the cloth, Gar kept going despite the pain crying out regally whenever he pulled the wound or accidentally scrubbed to hard. Covering the actual wound was a disgusting scab that was caked in dirt and other crap, it had opened up and closed itself several times as he tried to run. He removed the lot he needed to see the wound and check if it was spreading this necrosis deeper into his leg. removing the scab was almost more painful than the initial bite. He was fortunate in that the wound wasn¡¯t too deep the death dog had only caught him with its front few teeth the problem was the spreading necrosis, it needed to be removed. Gars knife was dipped into the boiling water, then still not happy with that he held the blade into the fire. Using just the tip of the blade he started investigating the wound, it was slow going he didn¡¯t want to make things worse and the pain was making his leg flail as he poked it . When the knife slipped under the necrotic skin, which he couldn¡¯t say whether that was intentional or by accident, he found that the necrosis didn¡¯t extend that deep at least not yet but he had already seen it was spreading. He could tell the area had even grown a bit since he had started cleaning. Gar hadn¡¯t liked what needed to be done, he was going to have to basically flay the skin off a large patch on the back of his leg and cut even deeper on the actual bite. Waiting was only going to make the area larger so Gar wiped his knife clean, and held it in the fire. Pulling it out of the fire he gave it a minute to cool then he put the blade to his leg starting above the wound in the living skin he needed to make sure he left nothing necrotic. The sharp knife helped as Gar slid the blade into his leg, he barely got anywhere before he had to stop the pain and simply the thought of what he was dong to himself had caused him to kick and flail there was no way he could continue like that. Sheaving his knife he grabbed some rope then hobbled over to the tree trunk on his platform. He went to the top most section of what was left where it was thinner, lying down next to the log he tied his leg to it, wrapping it round tight so the leg was held straight and he couldn¡¯t move it. He had then pulled his knife and started to try again trying to remove the necrotic parts. He couldn¡¯t do it both physically where it was on his leg and how he was tied down he couldn¡¯t get to it or even see it properly and mentally the thought of cutting in to his own leg even if it was necessary was just wrong. Gar looked at his health it was down to 124/167 and as he watched it lost another point. He had to do something. Gar had then looked up and seen the badgers, he realised what he was going to do. It would hurt more and be messy but if he couldn¡¯t do it himself it was his only choice. He quickly washed Bodgers skull with the rag then had it dunk its entire skull in the pot of boiling water and hold it there. He would have liked to have had Bodger put its head directly in the fire but that would most likely have been too much damage for the skeletal puppet. With Bodger as sanitised as he was able Gar put his leather sheath between his teeth and wrapped rope around the tree trunk to grab onto. He then gave Bodger the command to begin. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Bodger took a few moments almost as if considering what it had to do, long enough Gar relaxed a little from how he braced thinking the skeletal puppet hadn¡¯t understood what he wanted it to do. That was when Bodger brought its head down against the wound in Gars leg then using the side of its mouth bite down. Dropping the chunk it removed Bodger then took several more quick bites before it went back to the pot of boiling water and rinsed its head again. Returning to the wound Bodger took more nips at it with its front teeth, and on it went. Gar was aware of none of it, after the first bite he was in a world of pain. His teeth ground into the leather, his fists clenched the rope so tight he was close to drawing blood. He wanted to kick, to flail, to run anything to escape the pain. He couldn¡¯t though, he was tied down and he needed it to happen. The worst of it was when Bodger had to go deeper where the actual bite mark was that was no longer just skin that was more. Gar had passed out from the pain, he awoke when a damp cloth was dropped on his face. Bodger was in front of Gar his leg was still agony but the skeletal puppet must have thought it was done. The damp cloth was one of the strips of shirt he had left to dry by the fire, Gar had instructed Bodger to get it once the job was done. His leg was bleeding freely after being worked on by badger teeth. He untied the rope holding him down then inspected the job. He had to flush it with water to clear blood so he could see. It was a mess, badgers teeth do not do clean cuts. Fortunately only a small area had any depth and he could see no more necrosis which was good because he had no desire to go through that again. He used several strips to bandage the much larger wound then hopped himself into bed. Gar did not sleep well despite how tired he was the pain in his leg kept him from getting a good night¡¯s rest. He lay in bed until sunrise staring at the roof trying to think of anything except the pain. Crawling out he started his day by lighting a fire. Despite skipping it the previous day it felt wrong to not do his morning climb but he didn¡¯t even consider it. As some water boiled he un-bandaged his leg to look at the wound. The bandage was soaked through with blood but the wound underneath was fairly dry. He dipped a clean strip in the boiling water then dropped the used bandage in. Using the cloth he cleaned up round the wound leaving the injury itself not wanting to open it up again. Overall the wound looked good much better than an injury like that had any right to be, and even after a more thorough inspection there was no sign of any necrosis. He re-bandaged the wound after thoroughly washing the bandage and several water changes. He was in much better condition than he had any right to be and the only reason he could think off was that in video games attribute point¡¯s affected healing rate. He pulled up his status page, keeping it short. Race: Gargoyle Name: Gar Level: 4 Experience to next level: 65/338 Health: 146/167 Stamina: 167/167 Mana: 82/82 Constitution: 14 Endurance: 13 Strength: 16 Agility: 6 Dexterity: 6 Willpower: 11(10) Wisdom: 7 Intelligence: 8 Charisma: 3 Perception: 8 Luck: 5 Free attribute points: 9 He had already gained 22 health points back since the previous night he was curious as to whether it would continue going up at that rate, as that would mean his health would be full by the end of the day and if so would the injury be gone by then as well? He sorely hoped so as the pain was bad. Looking at the attributes he had, constitution seemed the most likely to affect health and healing. He looked at his free attribute points he had 9 of them he had been saving them because he didn¡¯t know where was best to use them from what he could tell pretty much any stat would be useful. With the potential benefits to his healing and figuring it would always be useful even if he chose not to add more points there later he allocated 4 points to constitution leaving him with 5 free attribute points to play with but he figured he would save them for another time. He checked his health after adding the points. ¡°186/207¡± It seemed adding the points had already increased his health and if he was honest the pain did feel slightly better. Feeling tired he crawled back into his shelter to try and get some sleep. He must have managed to fall asleep as he woke up at some point in the middle of the afternoon. His leg was throbbing, Gar was just glad it was no longer the stinging pain from the previous day. He crawled out and stirred the coals of his fire back to flames; he boiled some more water and set about changing bandages again. When he got them off the wound defiantly seemed better than earlier in the day, the jagged edges seemed more uniform and the skin was coming together. As the wound was no longer bleeding he left the bandage off for a bit to let it get some air. It was only then that he realised he was sat there completely naked, he had taken his trousers off when he had got back and gone to bed without even thinking about putting them on. He wasn¡¯t too concerned about his nakedness he knew there was no one about and he really wasn¡¯t going to bother with the movement required to put them on.