Accidentally Smithing Chapter 4
He couldn't quite fathom what he saw. Cat like fur shone through the tree tops. As long as a single tree wide. Then a head poked through the leaves.
For a second Nik was confused by what was going on until he heard the howl form a vast distance away.
Nik took to his heels, running away from where he had just been looking at. Panic overcame his whole body and he could only focus on one thing. Not being seen by whatever that was.
He had to get away from the forest. Away from his base, he had to get out of the direct line of sight from his base. He ran as fast as he could, pumping every Joule of energy he could muster to his legs and lung. How can it be this large? It was larger than some trees. The head alone was the size of a wheelbarrow. No, stop thinking about it, you'll just panic more. Just run. Aren't those flowers just so pretty? Think positive thoughts. Ice cream, ice cream is nice. He had crossed over a smaller ridge and the direct path towards the river was now downwards.
I need to get to the river to shower. I should be really smelly from all that running. He tried to distract himself from the huge monster he had just seen.
Nik was approaching the treeline rapidly. He was just about to reconsider entering the forest again his feet had already brought him under the canopy. No use in further contemplating, just get through it. The adrenaline level in his body was increasing with every moving shadow, every forest sound, and every time Nik thought he saw a 5-meter tall feline creature. It's just a kitty. They are so fluffy and nice. They always wanna cuddle. He could not get the thought of the saber-tooths he had seen on the distant cat out of his mind.
Nik pushed with everything he had at the dormant lying energy in his body. He had to get the mana to help his stamina. He was running low. It did not budge. Nothing happened. He cursed under his breath but stopped as soon as he noticed that cursing also took energy. He kept trying to push. All around him wildlife was woken up and scared, thinking Nik to be a predator out to get them, sadly not realizing the irony in their fears.
He approached a small stream with a hazardous speed. Accelerated by the descent and his will to move further. Each step he did not stumble a marvelous gift of the world. He tore through the forest rousing various forest animals but unnoticed by him. The riverbed was closer now. Only meters away. Nik didn't think of stopping. He didn't even realize that the river was there. He consciously was only aware of trying to push mana into his muscles. He jumped, not a graceful jump. He landed, something snapped, and hurt, his ankle hurt like hell. He kept on pushing as his vitality decreased by 120. The next step barely hurt. The step after that was fine again. The slope was slowly increasing again, going upwards and Nik continued running, breaking out of the forest.
Nik's Stamina was low, very low. It had dropped below ten just seconds ago. He just had to hold on for a few more minutes. He had spotted an overhang several hundred meters away, he was gonna take a break there. He was going to be safe there. Shit shit shit! I can't run low now I need to get to safety. I can't fall asleep close to the forest. The trees aren't safe! He needed to find a space where he was safe and the woods were not an option.
He arrived with two Stamina and a body hurting all over. His lungs burning as they used to do in PE. Each step of the last hundred had cause him as much pain as stepping on a shard of glass. He leaned on the rock and passed out before even touching the ground.
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The next time Nik opened his eyes he was in the act of opening his status when he stared dumbfounded down the mountain chain. It was morning. Did I sleep for three-quarters of a day? Irritated he proceeded, looking forward to the gains he had made since he been running a lot yesterday. He had run almost until he passed out so he should have gotten something for his troubles. When he fell asleep his stamina was below ten and he was panting like a dog. Gone were the glorious times when he was able to run without the exhaustion for an hour. He had been done for. Something could have chewed his leg and he wouldn't have woken up. Nik firmly believed that. If he had been awake and not dreaming he would have shooed the rodent away. He most certainly would have done something if something had chewed on his legs instead of being frozen scared.
Holding his breath he looked for [Running]. One?? How was that only worth one level in [Running] I leveled up like a million times from that quick forest run. It can't be, can it? Does danger influence skill growth? How strong had this thing been? He didn't get anything besides the hammer strike from the boar. But his status was not a complete disappointment. He had two new skill options for his race skills.
You have fulfilled a requirement for a (movement-type) race skill
and a (magic-perception-type) race skill. New skills are available.
You qualify for obtaining the following Race skills [2 slots available].
[Fast Pace]: This does not increase your maximum speed, allows moving at a higher speed without falling. Higher agility while running.
[Energy Veil] Restrict the energies inside your body to reduce the amount of natural energy scattering. You are harder to detect through magic means.
...
Higher Agility... so is that another stat or something you get through training. Kind of interesting but I am looking for something else. I want Energy Manipulation or whatever the next thing is that has to do with magic. That's where the other skill [Energy Veil] came in. Nik decided that whereas [Fast Pace] would be picked if he ever had an excess of skill slots [Energy Veil] was a necessity for survival. Especially if he didn't want to go back to his rock. He deemed movement-type skills as one the most important skills one could have in a world like this. Second only to skills that increased one's survivability, hiding did just that.
Bubbling over from excitement for the new skill he activated it. No mana cost? Wow, that's amazing. I can keep this up all day. After some more testing, it turned out to be not as easy as he had imagined it to be. He always had to keep some amount of attention on it. It deactivated as soon as he forgot about it. A difference was detectable while [Energy Sight] was on, a skill that thankfully didn't use any resources as well. That basically forced him to use [Energy Sight] all the time, which was distracting. The difference [Energy Veil] caused was marginal but noticeable. His stamina didn't diffuse from his skin anymore, something he wasn't even aware of before using [Energy Veil]. His mana was just weird, it acted slightly different, instead of the weird non-movements it had done earlier it now stood completely still, like another set of bones.
Having done his status checkup and playing around with his skills he was at a loss for what to do. There were the obvious human needs to be taken care of, Hunger and thirst were bothering him as well, leveling his new skill was high on his agenda too, but nothing felt more important to him right now than on deciding what to do about his rock. He had been living in danger and it must have been a lot. That creature in the forest had been massive, and that was probably not the scariest trait of said creature. His skills had grown a lot each time he traversed from this rock to the mountain and vice versa and the shadowy cat was probably the reason for that. It was only a guess, but he was rather sure about that now too. Going back seemed like a bad option for now. But what should he do? Getting stronger was one solution for sure, but more of a long-term goal. The other was either setting up camp here or moving further towards the river which could be more convenient. None seemed like ideal solutions. A vacation was what would really get him back into the game. Maybe jetting to Hawaii to learn surfing or relaxing on a beach in the Gulf would have taken the edge off. Sadly neither were an option.
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A few of his friends told him that hiking always set the mind at ease and sparked their creativity. He coincidentally had a reasonably sized mountain right next to him. It also appeared to be one of the smaller ones in the surrounding region so hiking up would be doable. It wasn't perfect but I would get his thoughts back in order.
Nik went on to explore the mountain. The plan was just exploring as high as he could, the goal being relaxation and not achieving anything. There would be crevices or scarps along the way for sure and he was not gonna waste time on struggling around them. In a less subdued mood compared to minutes earlier, Nik inhaled deeply a few times and started moving upwards, all the while whistling in a dissonant way. He had never had an ear for music and just enjoyed the discord in music.
Contrary to Nik's expectations he was not alone on the mountain. Occasionally he saw a few groups of animals that looked like chamois but distinctively different in some ways. Their colors were less the brownish tone he knew and more a dirty gray, slightly olive color. It was difficult to tell over the distance but they seemed to be larger than on earth as well. Once he saw an animal that looked like a combination of rabbit and marmots at a size smaller than a marmot. He hoped to identify it but it was too far away and he didn't want to scare it. The only thing that struck him as odd had been the absence of birds. Down in the forest, he had heard chirping a few times, but he had neither seen nor heard anything that could be mistaken for a flying creature.
After his encounter with the deformed rabbit he reached the conclusion to take a look at the chamois when he next saw them. It didn't take him long to find the next group. It was a six-strong group of grazing, one and a half meter tall goats. One of the goats was only a meter tall and it looked to be a bit younger and its larger head giving it a cute look. The plan for approaching them was quite simple, use [Stealthy Movement] and approach slowly while making himself as small as possible. The distance between the two parties slowly decreased from 200 meters when Nik first spotted them. When Nik was around 50 Meters away two of the animals turned to him and looked him straight in the eye. How did they notice me? Maybe my skill isn't as high as I thought or as efficient. He approached further not worried as they had been peaceful so far, needing half the distance before he got in range with [Identify]. Every few meters he approached further another animal looked towards him. As he reached the 25-meter mark to the closest [Identify] returned a result just as the animal returned his gaze.
[Bergams][Lvl. XX] - Average Specimen
Well, that tells me nothing. I wonder why it says 'XX' at the level indicator. Like does [Identify] use the hexadecimal system for the levels. No, can't be, the boar was shown in decimal and and X isn't even part of hexadecimal. Is it because I am not familiar with the type of animal. Maybe I guess. The only other option would be that they are too high of a level and I would really appreciate it if they weren't. Ahh dang, it is high level isn't it. If their level really is that high it would also explain why the boar attacked me and not something else. Are boars even carnivores, hell if I know? Maybe it was defending its territory.
While contemplating his new information Nik had not paid attention to his surroundings and was taken aback when he internalized the fact that the smallest of the beasts had approached him to a distance of ten meters with an agitated-looking large bergams besides itself. Throwing a quick [Identify] towards the small animal resulted in more useful information.
[Bergams][Lvl. 23] - Young Specimen
Ignoring its nervous escort the younger beast approached further. Nik only needed to glance into the circle to realize that right now was the second best moment to leave. The best had been just when the first bergams noticed him. Trying to keep his expression calm he crouched back, slowly gaining distance to the beasts. As he got further away the lower leveled bergams lost interest in him.
Eventually, Nik found a pond after having followed a stream. The area around the pool was open towards the slope, the opposite side was vegetated with what looked like reeds and a few more flowers grew around it. Insects were milling around the place and even a few aquatic animals were in the water. Nik had wanted to take a shower since the first morning here but had lacked opportunity. Now all of the grime on his body started itching and he felt an urge to be clean again. An aura of serenity washed over Nik as his undressed feet touched the cool water. The further in he got the more relaxed he felt. He opened his eyes for real and looked at his view.
His friends had been right, the view was amazing and while he wasn't all the way up yet the trip had already been worth it. The cool air caressing his head as his feet moved through the water to keep him afloat. The extra benefit of not being able to make out a single detail in the forest below put his mind at ease. Up here the world seemed at peace. As Nik breathed in and out felt his breath expand and shrink his chest. Each time he would cause little waves to appear in front of him in a melodic rhythm. As he got used to the loud sounds of his environment, he began hearing other sounds. The wind brushing through his hair and his heartbeat coming in regular intervals, each time associated with a rushing sound. With each breath there came two to three heartbeats. It was so relaxing Nik fell asleep.
Shuddering Nik opened his eyes. His body was freezing but it felt welcome. Feeling as though the last 3 days hadn't happened Nik got up and put his dry clothes on. They were still smelly but he didn't mind them too much. He felt good and he was not gonna walk around naked on a mountain.
The sun stood at its zenith. His bath had taken only an hour or so. His Stamina had never gotten low so he had no time indication. Looking around Nik contemplated on what to do. A quick scan around told him that nothing new had appeared and he still hadn't made up his mind about what to do next. Frankly, the main issue was that none of the options he had appealed to him. He would classify himself as neither an introvert nor an extrovert but too much of either wasn't to his liking. Ideally he would find some people at some point. But he had no hope just yet.
Moving on further upwards he did not come across any major issues while hiking, he did notice that his stamina drain had increased which he attributed to the lower oxygen concentration in the air. The hike to the top didn't take him much longer since he started running at one point, increasing his stamina consumption per minute to 6. Now having a good handle on time he ran upwards at an increased pace, thoroughly enjoying himself.
Arriving on top didn't turn out to be difficult. The mountain ended in a flat edge around the length of a basketball court. He sat down and looked grinning towards the forest. Not only did he have a blast hiking up the mountain but he also got a little something.
Unique Deed: [The Tip of the World] - Climb a mountain not seeking trouble but rest. Survive in the realm of Quetzalcoatlus'
Nik Thems: {Extraterrestrial Human} 2x Level up! You have accomplished the Unique Deed [The Tip of the World]. 16 Stat points have been awarded. Two General Skill Slots unlocked.
Nik Thems: {Extraterrestrial Human} Level 8.
Wow, if this just keeps going I am gonna be level 100 in no time. Is that even the max? Sounds like a good maximum level. This makes me wonder though, 'Survive in the realm of Quetzalcoatlus'' sounds pretty ominous. Maybe I should get down again. He decided to wait until his stamina had filled up a bit more. I guess I will also hold off on stat point distribution. Right now Physique looks like a good choice or maybe endurance but I don't know enough yet.
From where he sat he couldn't spot his boulder anymore. There was something else of interest, however. On the other side of the stream, halfway towards the horizon was a swath in the forest. There was no use in guessing at its dimensions but it looked large. It stretched further coming up against the horizon, the other end ended in a brown spot. Looks like a spaceship crash if I am honest. I really wanna check that out. With that in mind and a somewhat clear goal in mind, he moved down again. The river being his next destination.