Before leaving the area I set the snare again, I had to move further down the game trail though. The branch I had tied off to was almost broken off, plus there was just a smidge of blood all over the place.
Gained 25 XP in Trap Making
50/100 to Trap Making Level 2
With the rat slung over my shoulders, we made our way back to camp. About ¼ mile away we stopped and started to butcher our prize. I hadn't cleaned an animal since I was a kid, though I didn't puncture the stomach or bladder. It was a messy ordeal and my pocket knife was barely up to snuff. Halfway through the process Buddy couldn't contain himself any longer and started to wedge himself between me and my work.
"Will you get back!" I said to Buddy.
"But I'm so hungry!"
"Fine, here have some liver, '' I said as I threw parts at the furry garbage disposal formally known as Buddy. After getting all the meat I could I got a new talent!
Congratulations you have learned the talent - Animal harvesting.
Gathering what I could into my undershirt, we left the remains there. I knew better than bringing all that back to the camp. My first instinct was to jam the meat onto a stick and roast it like a marshmallow, but we had too much meat to do that. Thinking back, I remember seeing pictures of the Hopewell tribe smoking meat on wooden racks over a fire. Unfortunately for me, I didn't have any strings to make a fancy smoker. For now, I'll just have to do the tried and true marshmallow method. Finding a suitable stick I cut a strip of meat and began to cook.
Cooking wasn't like I expected it to be. I can only explain it like this, your meat was raw then in a blink, it was burnt. After burning three strips of meat I succeeded!
Congratulations you have learned the talent - Campfire cooking - “You won't starve! ”
Calculating
Congratulations you have the prerequisite talents for the skill - Survival
Fire-Making, Shelter, and Campfire cooking have been combined into - Survival
Survival is now level 1
0/100 to Survival level 2
New blueprints are now unlocked
Blueprints available:
* Smoking Rack
* Pot hanger
* A-Frame shelter
* Lean-to
* Campfire
“That's very convenient and somewhat suspicious. I have already built a lean-to, and I was just thinking about a smoking rack.” Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth I mentally clicked on Lean-to.
Lean-to: The simplest of structures, it offers a small amount of shelter from the elements
Requirements:
* 1 - Main support beam
* 15 - sticks
* 100 - leaves
Shelter Bonus:
* +5% to concealment
* +10% to insulation
* -5% required sleep
Looking at my own Lean-to I didn't see any indication that this shelter offered any of those effects. Moving on a hunch I removed some of the leaves from the top, then placed them back on.
You have made: Lean-to
Gained 50 XP in Survival
50/100 XP to Survival level 2
“Yes, that makes total sense. Why wouldn't removing a few leaves and then putting them back on make a shelter.” Getting back under the shelter I immediately felt warmer. That is not to say it was cold outside though. The sensation was like when you just got into a car when it was chilly outside. The sun had warmed the inside of the car just a bit more than the outside. Getting back to the list I mentally clicked on Campfire.
Campfire: A basic fire
Requirements:
* 15 rocks
* Fuel
* Ignition source
Campfire Bonus:
* -5% concealment
* +15% Warmth
* +10% Regeneration in HP, SP, MP
That sounded like a good deal more effective than what I had now. Putting that on the to-do list I continued with what I wanted, a smoking rack
Smoking Rack
Requirements:
* 2 Y shaped sticks
* 1 cross-bar stick
* Campfire
"Why does this thing not have any perks? I guess beggars can't be choosers." For my system given 'smoking rack' to work, I first needed to construct a 'Campfire'. Thinking about what I should complete first, I reasoned none of it would matter if Buddy ate my hand off first! Throwing him the piece of cooked meat, I sliced off one more strip and started cooking again. On my second attempt, I got another non-burnt piece.
You have made: Cooked Cave Rat
Gained 10 XP in Survival
You have made: Cooked Cave Rat
Gained 10 XP in Survival
70/100 XP to Survival level 2
Trying my first Bathos cooked meal, I gaped about how good it tasted. I’d never eaten rat back home but I doubt it tasted like this. The meat was tough but flavorful, it reminded me of a New York strip steak. Unfortunately, I didn't get any bonus like I did with being hydrated. I decided to cut the rest of the meat up into small strips like this, thinking I could cook them all at once. Looking over to Buddy I asked, “How was your meal Cujo?”
“Who is Cujo?”
“Uh, he was a crazy dog that would kill people because he was hungry or something like that. You went dang near feral when you saw the food.”
“I am a dog. I was very hungry. It's simple”
“Next time please be a bit more patient. Ok?”
“Ok, I'm sorry,” he said with drooping ears.
Going over to the stream I gathered up rocks roughly the size of a softball for the campfire. On my second trip, I was in the middle of the stream when I felt something grasp onto my calf. I looked down and couldn't believe what I saw. A crawdad the size of a lobster!
Name: N/a
Race: Infant Mud Bug
Level: 2
Type: Crustacean
"Ahhhhh" I screamed while jumping around.
Gained 10 XP to Identify
You receive 5 damage
You receive 3 damage
You receive 4 damage
What I had felt was the monster's claw digging into my calf. With blood running down my leg, I reached down, grabbed the Crustacean, and pulled. SNAP! Instead of the whole thing coming off I wrenched the body off its arm.
You dealt 25 damage to Infant Mud Bug
You receive 4 damage
I threw the body to the side, avoiding its other claw. Buddy swooped in and crunched down onto the body while it was in mid-air. With a bite I didn't know he had, his teeth punctured the head, instantly killing it.
You have killed Infant Mud Bug
Gained 35 XP
45/100 to level 2
You receive 3 damage
Hopping to the bank, I sat down. Looking at my wound I realized the claw was still attached to me. Trying to pry the claw open didn't work. I even grabbed a stick and tried to leverage between the two claws. That didn't work either.
"GET THIS THING OFF ME!" I screamed at Buddy. He clamped on and started to pull it off when I yelled "STOP! STOP! STOP! That's not going to work." A plan started to form in my head. It was a very bad plan, but it was better than wearing the claw as a fashion accessory for the rest of my life. "Help me get back to the camp."
You receive 4 damage
With extreme effort and even more complaining we made it back to camp. Extending my foot next to the fire, I placed the claw and arm into the fire pit. The fire began to cook and then burn the appendage. The more it caught on fire the less tension the claw had on my leg until I could pry it open.
"Thank God!" I said after throwing what was left of the claw into the fire. Lying on my back, trying to steady my breathing, another prompt appeared.
You receive 4 damage
"How?!"
"What? What's wrong?" Buddy asked in a worried tone.
"I'm still receiving damage."
Sitting back up I looked closer at my wound. There were small barbs stuck in my leg that must have broken off from the claw. I started to remove each one, slowly and painfully I might add. Through the process, I lost another 12 HP.
It was not a pleasant experience but it got worse. The longest barb was stuck in my calf muscle, to the point where I couldn't get it out with my hands.
"Buddy. I'm going to cut this last barb out. Please don't judge me."
"Judge you for what?"
I made a quick cut with my knife along the length of the barb. Quickly reaching in and pulling it out. I then promptly passed out. Again for the second time, in as many days.
You receive 15 damage
I awoke an indeterminate time later with Buddy resting his head on my chest whimpering. I reached down to pet his head. "I'm alright Buddy. How long was I out ?" As I asked the question I noticed the red bar in my vision was about 30 percent full.
"Are you okay?" Questioned Buddy
"I think so."
I looked closer at the red bar until numbers appeared.
30/100 HP
That was worse than I expected, though a portion of the bar was grayed out. Doing some quick mental math I had received a total of 54 damage before I passed out and another 20 after. Why was I still being damaged? Opening up my character sheet, I saw under status effects, I saw it.
Status effects:
* Open wound 1: prevents the regeneration of 20 HP
* Bleeding 1: lose 4 HP/Minute
You receive 4 damage
Peering down, I saw the bleeding hadn't stopped and my calf was torn in two directions. I took off my undershirt wrapping it around the injury.
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“Buddy, please go get me a stick”
“Why do you want to chew on it?”
“No, I need to make a windless for my shirt”
“What is a windless?”
You receive 4 damage
“I can use a stick to tighten down my shirt to help stop the bleeding”
While I was waiting for Buddy, I checked to see if my open wound status effect was still there; it was. I hope that making a tight bandage can remove the status effect because if it can't, I don't like the other option. My current pain level was roughly 1000 but it had gone down from the 10,000 it was before. Any small movement of my leg was terrible. The whole area seemed to be inflamed, which could indicate infection. At this point, that could be a death sentence.
Buddy returned with not as much a stick but more of a small tree. “Here you go!” He said in a proud voice.
You receive 4 damage
“That is one heck of a tree, but I need something a bit smaller” I couldn't blame him,
didn't tell him what I needed, though that didn't help that I was about to DIE. Holding my hand about two feet apart I said “I need a stick this big”
“But I got you a better stick already”
“I know Buddy, can you please just get me another stick” I said with clenched teeth
“Fine,” he said while rolling his eyes. I didn't know dogs could roll their eyes.
After a few short moments Buddy returned and dropped a stick in front of me “Does this work?”
You receive 4 damage
“Yes it does, please hurry!.”
My heart was about to pound out of my chest while I watched my health bar tick down closer to zero. Loosening my quick bandage I tied the top and bottom together making a circle. Pulling it back up my leg I placed it above my knee. I then put the stick between my leg and the outside of the circle. Twisting the improvised windless until it was tight I shoved one of the sides of the stick into the ground. Double checking my status screen.
Status effects:
* Open wound 1: prevents the regeneration of 20 HP
“Oh, thank god! The bleeding status is gone!” Looking at my HP hovering at 22 points.
“Are you going to be better now?”
“Yeah, I just need time to recover”
After 30 minutes I decided to try and take off my tourniquet. Now that my HP was up to a meager 52 points, I felt comfortable enough to try to stand. I immediately sat back down. The paint was too much, I was sure it was infected. The surrounding area was red and puffy. Untying my shirt I held it up to Buddy. "Can you take this down to the river and get it wet?"
"I don't have hands"
"I won't hold it against you. Crap, now what?"
"I can lick it. When I cut my paw that one time I licked it and it got better"
"No, I took you to the vet, and he wrapped it up, then you got better."
"I still say I should lick it."
"Let's call that plan B. Can you put the shirt in your mouth and dip it into the water? I need some water to try and clean this cut."
"Oookay," he said with a ruff. I put the shirt in his mouth and hoped for the best. He was a smart dog, but he did get distracted. Before he ran too far I yelled "Be careful there might be more of those things in the water!" I was hoping that I could flush out my mound and wrap it with my shirt. I remembered watching a video once of a guy who didn't have a water bottle in the woods, he said that an old shirt can act as a sponge and carry a small amount of water. What ended up happening was Buddy returned with a mud-covered shirt.
“Gee, thank you, Buddy.” Doing my best to get the mud off of it I found he had clamped down a bit too tight and put tiny little holes in it. I ended up putting the shirt on my forehead so Buddy wouldn't feel insulted. Feeling my leg getting worse I double-checked my status effects
Status effects:
* Open wound 1: prevents the regeneration of 20 HP
* Infection 1: Prevents regeneration of +5 HP every hour until cured
* Current Infection: 5 HP lose
That is not good. At this rate, I'll be dead in 16 hours, unless the infection gets even worse. Racking my brain for any idea of what I could do I came up blank. I needed to make a priority list to work my way from the top.
1. Somehow clean my wound to stop the infection
2. Close my wound
3. Get more food
4. Level up
5. Find people
I have found that when I need to find a solution to a problem that doesn't have an obvious answer I distract myself with simple work. Looking into the fire I noticed the fire was starting to go out, reaching up I grabbed the giant stick my Buddy brought me. I slowly but surely broke it down into fire-sized pieces, adding some to the fire and the remainder I put into a pile.
“Now that you better I want food”
“I'm not at full HP but I think I can walk. Help me up” Placing my hand on the dog's neck I lifted myself. Putting any pressure on my leg hurt, but thankfully I could still walk. Limping over to the remainder of the meat from the Cave Rat I wondered if it would still be edible. Identify
Name: Cave Rat Meat
Portions: 12
Quality: 3/5
Interesting, the meat is above half of the quality, I wonder at what point it's no longer edible? Deciding to build the Campfire, Buddy and I made our way back to the river. Slowly wading in the water, with a spear in hand I saw a decent rock. Bending over to lift it Buddy spoke “Maybe this time we can eat the little fish thing.”
“What do you mean this time?” I said with panic in my voice while doing a 360 check around me.
“Can't you see the tail of one of those things coming out the side of the rock?”
Looking closer at the rock between my feet, I could see the tail. Greaaaat.
“Should I even try this rock?”
“How should I know? You're the one with a pointy stick.”
“Duhh '' Forgetting that I had a weapon in my hand was embarrassing but in my defense, I was half dead, or at least that is what my HP bar told me. Moving my spear to my right hand, I lowered the tip into the water above the tail. In one fluid motion, I stabbed my spear clean through the tail and stuck it to the stream bed.
Sneak Attack
Critical Hit
You dealt 42 damage to Mature Mud Bug
Maneuvering around so the tail of the crustacean was between my feet, I bent over and carefully lifted the rock out of the way. At first, I couldn't see it fully, half of its body was in a hole that was covered by the rock. Then like lightning the rest of its body shot out of the hole, flopping around trying to get its tail unstuck. It was even more ugly than the last one and triple the size. Instead of two pincers, there were four, they were stacked on top of each other in two rows of two. Furthermore, it had four antennae that looked more like spears than anything else. From this angle, neither the pointy nor pinchy bits could reach me. Identify.
Name: N/a
Race: Mature Mud Bug
Level: ???
Type: Crustacean
Gained 50 XP in Identify
The XP prompt popped up in my vision, blocking my view of the Mature Mud Bug. “Will you just go away!”
Do you wish to minimize XP prompts for skill: Identify?
Yes / No
Thinking Yes, the prompt disappeared. “It's called a Mature Mud Bug and I'm not sure what level it is. It has to be at least level 7 because I can't Identify its level.”
From the shore Buddy yelled back “How are you going to kill it? Want me to come trash it?” he said with a grr.
“No! Stay back. I will figure something out.” reaching into my pants I pulled out my pocket knife. Opening it up, I looked at it closely, until the description appeared
Name: Folding Knife
Damage: 4-7
Type: Small Blade
Quality: C
Requirements: N/a
Description: Made with the finest quality Chinesium
The Description part was new and how did the system know it was made in China? Even more, how is it that this tiny little knife does more damage than my beautifully crafted spear? Either way, I knew what to do. The creature's exoskeleton was rounded on the top up to the point where it flattened out for the four antennas. Not wanting to get stabbed by those, I aimed my downward thrust about 6 inches behind the flat area.
You dealt 1 damage to Mature Mud Bug
“That's not good” I needed to find a critical area to stab. Not knowing where the important parts were under the shell, I started stabbing at random until I found one.
You dealt 2 damage to Mature Mud Bug
You dealt 1 damage to Mature Mud Bug
You dealt 1 damage to Mature Mud Bug
You dealt 2 damage to Mature Mud Bug
Critical Hit
You dealt 29 damage to Mature Mud Bug
“There you are!” Finding the sweet spot it was 8 inches down and 2 inches to the left from the base of its head. I lifted my hand for another blow when I felt my arms weaken, my breaths became more heavy and my vision started to flash green. My vision isn't flashing green, that was my SP bar. I only had 10% left! Who would have thought stabbing an oversized crayfish with a pocket knife would be tiring? Thinking quickly, I stabbed my blade into the critical area once again. Now down to 5% SP.
Critical Hit
You dealt 34 damage to Mature Mud Bug
Leaving my blade in place, I took one last deep breath and stomped down with all my might onto the back of my blade. Then promptly falling face first into the water.
Critical Hit
You dealt 37 damage to Mature Mud Bug
You have killed Mature Mud Bug
Gained 280 XP
Congratulations you have leveled up!
You are now Level 2
You are now Level 3
15/200 XP to Level 4
Gained +10 stat points to be distributed
Congratulations you have learned the skill Small Blades: 5% damage bonus when using small blades
Small Blades is now level 1
0/100 to Small Blades level 2
In an amazing rush of euphoria, I leaped out of the water, taking a deep breath. Looking at my SP bar it was full. “Ha Ha! Not too big now!” I said while kicking the Mud Bug. I banked on the XP from the kill replenishing my SP bar before I died from exhaustion or drowning, whichever came first. “I love it when a plan comes together”
“You just got lucky didn't you?” asked the dog.
“You can't prove anything.”
Unfortunately leveling up didn't cure my open wound or the infection. In fact that stomp opened my wound even further. The Open Wound 1 debuff was upgraded to Open Wound 2. Reducing my total HP by 50! Thankfully I didn't get another bleeding status though. Coming down off of the leveling high, my leg started to scream at me. The pain went from a constant 6 out of 10 to an 8. I really needed to fix that somehow.
Getting the last few rocks to shore was thankfully boring. No more water monsters trying to eat me. Climbing to the shore, I laid on my back for a moment to catch my breath. Looking at my old notifications I remembered I had 10 new stat points to distribute.
“How should I distribute my new stat points?” I asked no one in particular.
“I don't even know what that is.”
“Good point. Do you want me to try and explain them to you?”
With a nod from Buddy, I started “Stat points here seem to act the same as they did in video games back home. There are a total of 6 different stats that are set up in pairs that complement each other: strength and Constitution, Dexterity and Endurance, Intelligence and Mana. Constitution, Endurance, and Mana affect my three status bars. HP, SP, and MP respectively. Are you following me so far?”
“I suppose, but what does each one do?”
“My understanding is that Strength determines how strong I am, whereas Constitution is how many Health points I have. Dexterity helps me with balance and how fluid my movements are. Endurance is how far I can run or how many times I can stab a creepy water bug. Intelligence is how smart I am, like how fast I can interpret information, lastly is Mana which I guess is how much power my body can hold. In the system here when you level up you get extra points to put into one of those stats.”
“So you get better stats when you put more points into them from leveling?”
“You got it!”
With a confused face, he said “Why don't I have any points then?”
“I have no idea, this is all hypothetical until I can find someone to explain all this to me.”
Pulling up my character screen I looked at my current stats.
Strength: 10
Constitution: 10
Dexterity: 11
Endurance: 10
Intelligence: 12
Mana: 9
Right off the bat, I added 3 points to both Strength and Constitution, raising both to 13. I didn't have any other weapon except melee types so strength was a must. Plus I don't think more HP will be an issue, especially right now. Keeping to my balanced build I added 2 points into Mana raising it to 11, and finally the remaining 2 into endurance. I almost died from my SP hitting zero in that last fight and I didn't want that to happen again. Finalizing my selection I felt that weird pain of increasing my stats, just like last time though it was over in a moment. Before I did anything else I looked at my new stat totals.
Strength: 13
Constitution: 13
Dexterity: 11
Endurance: 12
Intelligence: 12
Mana: 11
Moving to my next notification, Small Blades. This skill was my first combat skill! A 5% boost whenever I use my knife will be nice. I wondered how I got the skill though. Maybe it was because I killed with a knife or I used it so many times? If it was from killing then I would have gotten a skill from my spear. Either way, the answers didn't help me at the moment.
“How are we going to get these rocks back?” I asked Buddy
“You can't carry them?
“My leg is so messed up that I'm not sure if I can walk back. The adrenaline high from the fight is over and my leg is throbbing. I may have to crawl back.”
“I can't pick up those rocks, they are bigger than my head!”
“I know, but I think I may have an idea.” Taking my pants off I tied the ends of the pant legs into a knot. Then I slid each of the rocks into a pant leg, making sure to keep them even. I then cinched my belt down as tight as I could around the waist. “Here, can you drag this back into camp?” I said as I extended the tail of my belt.
“Duhh, I am the tug-of-war champ or did you forget”
“What I remember is you letting go of the rope and me falling through the sliding screen door. You know I had to pay for that!”
With a chuff Buddy replied “Not that time, I meant when I took your blankets from you that one time. You fought as hard as you could but in the end, I won!”
“You mean when I was asleep! Doesn't count”
“Yes huh” retorted the mutt
“Either way it doesn't matter right now, we need to get these rocks back to camp, I'm going to need the Health regen it gives”
“Fine.”
Sitting down on my butt I tried to do a crab walk with poor results. It required too much pressure on my leg, and at this point, I was in so much pain I could barely move my leg at all. I rolled over and pulled myself along the ground with my arms and one leg. About halfway into the crawl Buddy had dropped off the rocks and made his way back to me. When I had to stop and take a break he pushed his body up against mine and licked my face.
“Thanks, Buddy, I needed that.” It was at that moment I realized I might not make it. I had no idea how to fix my leg, shy of amputation. I didn't think I could even do that with my baby pocket knife, so I called that plan Z. After three breaks I made it back to camp, that was the hardest 70 yards I had ever done.
I made my way to the fire pit. I slowly arranged the rocks in a circle around the hole I had dug. After placing the last stone, nothing happened? “Wait, shouldn't something happen?”
“Don't you need fire for a campfire?” questioned Buddy.
“Yeah, I knew that” While I was fighting the crazed crustation the fire had died out. Placing more sticks into the fire pit I blew on the embers until a log lit. The second I saw a tongue of flame, the crappy circle of uneven rocks I made changed. Each rock became uniform with the other, shifting into a perfect circle. The fire engulfed each of the sticks evenly.
You have made: Campfire
* -5% concealment
* +15% Warmth
* +10% Regeneration in HP, SP, MP
Gained 50 XP in Survival
Congratulations you have reached level 2 in Survival
20/200 XP to Survival level 3
Slumping over I took a deep breath, relaxing in the new warmth the fire gave off. Getting comfortable, I decided to take a short nap. Rolling over to face Buddy I said “I'm going to take a nap, please wake me before it gets dark.”
“But I'm hungry!”
“I know Buddy, when I wake up we can cook some food!”