It was decided to leave the shelter as it is while we were all preparing for a journey.
"Luntra, are you sure we'll need berries this much?" I really could not understand why she wanted to have this much of them.
"I am. Berries by far are second best option of getting water."
"But really? Just because they have some water..."
"The rule of three," it can get really annoying when she interrupts me like that.
"The what?"
"Human bodies aren't invincible and have their own limitations. That's why..."
"We need to focus on our spiritual strength," interrupted Kenmo.
"He has just 9 HP left and his emo attitude is annoying."
"I'll jump off the nearest cliff I find if you do that," Luntra really knows how to restrain my murder intention.
"Anyways, continue with your explanation. It's somewhat interesting."
"Ugh... There are 3 major time limits for human body on average. 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food."
"But what do they mean?"
"I wonder if I ever get to see development in your brain. They obviously mean time on average it takes to survive without said things."
"Oh... So that's you worry about water so much."
"Now you understand. But I still want you to inform us about this world if possible since you really seem pretty knowledgable."
Me, Meqro and Kenmo looked at her with confusion.
"What's with that look?"
"I mean," it was good that Meqro spoke because he could hold in temptation to scold Luntra, "this world is literally based on a video game genre. If you played enough games and have general idea of what it's like to play games like these..."
Never before had I seen Luntra this damaged personally.
"Anyways," maybe changing a topic would not be such a bad idea, "we should be ready overall, shouldn't we?"
"I guess so," shrugged Luntra still with the damaged look.
"I'm always ready," Kenmo fixed his glasses feeling like a main character of the story.
"Didn't we promise to send friend request to each other?"
Of course, even I forgot about it. Since we were all likely to be level 3, then we should unlock friend request option. I immediately checked my profile:
Profile options
Time: 21:14 (24 hours)
Quests
Crafting [ ! ]
Bestiary [ ! ]
Home (Own A House To Unlock)
Map
Stats
Friends [ ! ]
Clan (Available at Level 10)
Inventory
I might check bestiary later since I neglected it for quite a while but we all should had sent friend requests quite some time ago, so I opened the menu:
Friends (0)
Friend Requests (0)
Send A Friend Request
Within a minute, everyone was sending each other a friend request and we all confirmed having 3 people in our friend list. Being on friend list with someone would mean being unable to fight them in PvP under normal circumstances, see each other on map and maybe some more features. I could honestly just imagine at that point.
"I guess we're all ready. Now we just need to have quite a walk."
The walk started really nicely and everyone seemed to be bothered with something. That made me bother myself with bestiary:
Bestiary:
Common enemies: Slimes, Spiders
Bosses: The Six Great Generals
Wait... What is that? I was really curious about the entire thing:
The Six Great Generals
A group consisting of six demons with ranking varying from SS to XS+* classes that act as generals of the army of the underworld. Every general possesses incredible skills of certain type of combat, magical and analytical abilities.
Encountered: 1/6
Defeated: 0/6
[* - X in rating equals to SSS]
So... That strong ass demon we encountered is basically one of the most dangerous things in the game? I really want to see how low slimes are rated to have at least some sort of idea:
Slimes
F ranked creatures. Mostly bring no harm but have amazing absorbing and filtering abilities. Can absorb magic, other slimes or items to get stronger. Highest recorded ranking for a slime that got stronger that way - S.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
I did not even care about how many slimes I encountered or defeated. What mattered is that one of the things Meqro and me saw that night was a being that clearly did not belong in this area. But if its damage did not go beyond double digits, then why was it ranked that high? Too much information to bother myself with. As we were travelling though we would kill some spiders, slimes, cut down some small trees, harvest berries and what not. I could not bother to know how many hours had passed but something made Luntra stop all of a sudden.
"What's the problem?"
"I just happened to remember, at this point we should be advanced enough to craft pickaxes, shouldn't we?"
Up until that moment I totally dismissed the fact that this world was also based on survival genre. And it was pretty common of that genre to provide players with tools depending on their materials that they get step by step. For example, first they get sticks and small stones that players can make some simple tools with like some weak pickaxe or axe. Later on you manage to find coal and iron ore to make a better item. But what troubled me was the fact that this world was also based on RPG genre, in which you get most of the tools via killing bosses or completing dungeons. To mix such genres together would require really good thinking because it would be shame if some skilled player could just skip certain steps of gameplay just to get advantage faster.
"Kuronto, don't tell me that this much information is enough to confuse you."
"I guess we should check what new tools we can craft. If Luntra's correct, then we'll get to visit a cave or two or more."
Everyone knew what to do and so did I:
Crafting
Tools [ ! ]
Weapons [ ! ]
Artifacts (Available at Level 15)
Potions (Available at Level 5)
Armor [ ! ]
Food
Buildings
So this was meant to be the stage where we should learn to handle metal since I already had a rough idea of what I could craft.
"Incredible, it feels as if thousands of years of human evolution passed by one night," Luntra's shock seemed really out of place.
"Nerd."
"Still better than being a retard."
"Anyways, let's see what we got."
Tools
Stone Working Blade
Stone Axe
Stone Pickaxe
Torch
Copper Axe
Copper Pickaxe
Iron Axe
Iron Pickaxe
Being able to get iron tools this early was actually good. But as for copper... It's probably one of the most neglected materials ever that's only used in electricity-related stuff which was likely irrelevant in this world. Though I could not tell for sure. Regardless, all I cared about was just a damn stone pickaxe:
Stone Pickaxe - allows to mine upper-level stone
Base Damage: 4
Crafting Recipe: Stone Working Blade, 2 sticks, 2 slime, 4 web
"I guess we just need to find sturdy stone and make a couple of those pickaxes."
"Aren't torches a part of mining too?" wondered Luntra.
"They need 1 stick, 5 slime, a coal or a charcoal," Meqro even read the torch crafting recipe.
"Ah, we can turn wood into charcoal and use it for torches then."
"We could also try bothering ourselves with a shelter because the night isn't really the best time here."
"We should still have evil repel..."
"We can't really afford something like that," interrupted Kenmo.
"Why's that?"
"In our situation we should stay mobile at night. Sleep is helpful but not that much survival games bother themselves with sleepiness., so we should be fine," he really had to fix his glasses like an anime character again?
"As emo as he is, he's got a point here. We should try staying up for the whole night to see how we end up."
While it was not exactly this late, it would be a good idea to prepare for the night early on.