Standing in front of the camp, Archie turned toward Michael, “Which side of the island has a beach?”
Michael thought for a bit before responding, “West of the camp is a beach if you run for a couple of hours. Why?”
“Gonna do something there and don’t want to cause a disturbance,” Archie said, even though Michael seemed to be a great guy, he wasn’t close enough to tell him where he slept. Besides, there seemed to be a mind controller who was able to make people his puppets. And using that logic, he most definitely had sleeper agents within their camp.
Was Archie making assumptions based on the movies and novels he had read before? Yes.
“Well, I guess we split up here, Archie,” Michael said, as both he and Archie passed through the entrance of the camp.
“Yeah, I’ll see you later,” Archie said but then took a second look at Michael and smiled. “Don’t forget to take those jaguars and sell them.”
Michael currently lugged both jaguars atop his shoulders, drenched in jaguar blood. Michael looked at him with annoyance, Archie did not have a drop of blood on him.
“Yeah, yeah…wait till I get me one of those magical space things,” Michael grumbled as he walked towards his tent.
Archie chuckled before heading towards one of the stands that had a tannery behind them.
As he reached the stand, he stared at a man who appeared slightly older than himself, standing at about five foot seven with a stout frame. The man wore brown leather armor, multiple knives strapped to his hip, and a leather headband circling his bald head.
“Hello, what can I do for you?” the man replied in a gruff tone.
“Hey there, I got a couple of jaguars you can skin,” Archie said
“Jaguars? What level?” the man asked, placing a piece of untanned leather atop the tannery before facing Archie.
“48,47,46.” Archie said as he took them out of his spatial ring and placed them on the stand. The man shook his head muttering something before he took out a knife.
“I can pay 150 per jaguar,” The man offered. Archie nodded, any amount of points would be great since he would have just left them in the jungle. If he was being robbed blind, then so be it. Besides, if he could get a good meal for 30 points then, this was most likely the correct price he was paying, for a beast of that level.
Archie stared at the man skinning the jaguar, it was obvious that he knew what he was doing; every cut was smooth, with no hints of hesitation.
“Did you do some tanning or leather working before the system integration?” Archie asked, trying to make a bit of small talk as he waited.
“I’ve hunted and cooked game for most of my life. Using what I know, when I started to skin these beasts, I was given the option to become a Tanner.” The man explained as he placed all three jaguar skins on a separate table.
So you can get Professions without any help from others if you’re good enough at it, Archie learned as he stared at the man. The more you know.
Looking back at Archie he offered the back of his palm. Archie accepted the system message prompt and saw his tutorial points increase.
“You got any leather strips? Preferably around ten inches in length?” Archie asked as he sent the skinned jaguars back to his spatial ring.
The tanner nodded and rummaged through a few drawers before handing a handful of them to him, ignoring what Archie had done with the skinned jaguars. Archie offered him the back of his palm, but the tanner waved at him dismissively. “Just come here when you wanna skin your game and I can offer you a discount.” The tanner saw Archie’s confused expression and continued, “You’re one of the few here who can get me higher-leveled skins, and I like to continue to level up.”
“Yeah, sure no problem.” Archie said, sending away the leather strip and offering his right hand to the tanner, “I’m Archie.”
The man extended his own arm, accepting the handshake. “Bill.”
After shaking hands with Bill, Archie went past a couple more stands to find Evelyn relaxing at her stand. She wasn’t cooking or preparing anything, she was just observing everyone as they did their day-to-day activities.
“Hello, Miss Evelyn.” Archie smiled, causing her to look up at him and smile.
“Hello, dearie. What can I do for you? Do you want something to eat?” she asked while getting up from her chair.
“If you’re offering, who am I to say no?” Archie said as Evelyn chuckled and pulled out an apple.
“Unfortunately, I’m waiting for some meat to be delivered tonight so I cannot make any hearty meal at the moment. So, this apple will have to do for now.” Eveyln said, her tone apologetic.
“Well then, I think I just got the thing for you,” Archie said as he took out the skinned jaguars and placed them atop her table stand.
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The sight of three skinned jaguars suddenly appearing on her stand table caused her to flinch back. “Oh my!”
Eveyln looked at the skinned jaguars and offered the back of her palm to Archie, intending on paying him.
Archie grabbed the apple and took a bite out of it. The crisp apple taste washed away the food cravings he had. “This apple is plenty,” He smiled.
“I insist. I don’t take charity from anyone.” Eveyln firmly stated.
Archie smiled, a memory surfacing of his own grandmother saying something similar. "The only payment I'll accept will have to be a great meal."
Eveyln looked at him for a few seconds before huffing, “Fine…I expect you to be here by tonight.”
“Of course,” Archie smiled as he left her stand, hearing her mutter under her breath something about kids being too kind for their own good.
Archie headed back out of the camp and started to sprint towards the direction Michael gave him, intent on finding a cave to stay in before nightfall.
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After an hour of sprinting across the island, he arrived at the beach, and sure enough giant crabs were scuttering across the sand. Their metallic exoskeletons glistened from the sun’s rays.
The ocean looked beautiful, its waters a vibrant blue as waves flowed onto the beach and back again. All in all, ignoring the giant crabs that scurried about, this beach looked like the perfect beach.
“Hopefully there are cave entrances that I can access below the water,” Archie said as he started to swim into the ocean.
When he got around fifty meters away from the shore, he dove into the ocean. Looking towards the shore, he saw no cave. So, he had to keep going deeper.
As Archie kept going deeper, he saw various sea creatures that caught his attention. The fish themselves didn’t approach Archie, rather, they simply stared at him from afar as though it was their first time seeing a human.
[Sand Squid Lv 14]
[Bubble Jellyfish Lv 32]
[Gulper Eel Lv 37]
[Snailfish Lv 34]
These were the few that caught his attention. But aside from those fish, he eventually found what he was searching for—a tunnel.
The tunnel looked promising, wide enough to fit a car. Archie began to swim through, noticing luminescent pebbles along the sides that emitted a faint blue glow.
This is definitely leading towards a dungeon entrance, he thought as he continued swimming.
Thankfully, it seemed his race evolution had also enhanced his lungs. He’d been swimming deep underwater for at least twenty minutes now and only felt a slight ache in his chest. Eventually, the glow from the luminescent pebbles faded, leaving him alone, surrounded in darkness.
I should have grabbed one of those pebbles, he complained. He had long since lost his sense of direction. His lungs burned, his limbs felt heavier than they ever felt before, and his heart pounded erratically as it struggled to supply his body with oxygen.
But Archie kept swimming. He’d forgotten how long he’d been pushing forward, ignoring the pain and fatigue.
And then he saw it—a light shining above him. Hope surged through him as he forced his heavy limbs toward the surface.
Breaking through the water, Archie gasped, inhaling fresh air as he coughed, finally free of the tunnel.
Archie pulled himself up from the tunnel and crawled a few feet before rolling onto his back, exhausted.
Looking up, he saw a ceiling made of rock and stalactites staring down at him. But he also saw a large hole in the cave ceiling shining light throughout the cave.
Seeing no danger around him, Archie closed his eyes, mentally exhausted.
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Waking up, Archie saw the sun that had shined light throughout the cave had been replaced by the moon. Rising from the sandy floor, he brushed the sand stuck to his arms and face and started to explore the cave he was now in.
The walls were lined with several large, upside-down U-shaped tunnels, each one a dark passageway with not a speck of light shining through them. Three tunnels in particular looked to lead towards the sea; two of which led in the same direction, and the other led towards his left.
He could see various large rocks jutting out from the seawater in front of him, covered in vibrant green moss. He could hear the rhythmic sound of the waves lapping against the sand and rocks as it echoed throughout the cave.
This is calming. Archie thought as he took in his new surroundings.
Archie looked at the hole at the top of the cave and got an idea. Approaching the wall, he took a few steps back and launched himself forward in a running jump, his hands easily digging into the wall of the cave.
For a couple of moments, he hung there and did not feel the stone around him crumble or move. Then he pulled his right hand from the wall and dug it a bit higher above him.
Seeing that he could easily climb the wall, he kicked off the wall and landed back on the sand.
Dusting off his hands, Archie took out his forging equipment and table and placed them on the sand. He placed his hammers, tongs, and scriber atop the table to avoid them being lost in the sand. He then placed the large crate of iron and steel bars next to the table.
Archie removed his chain-mail-plated sleeves, placing both the damaged and intact ones atop the table. He stared at them, intending to try to make his own sleeves and use them as a basis for any future metal sleeves.
The shoulder portion of each sleeve consisted of six plates: three wide plates on top, with one side extending over his chest and the other covering his shoulder blade, and three longer plates beneath that protected his bicep, ending about three inches below his elbow. Each of these plates were connected via nails, something he did not have at the moment.
The elbow itself was shielded by a couter, which is made of two plates particularly shaped to allow the wearer to bend and extend his arm without restricting any movement. The sleeve's final segment was a forearm guard, covering around five to six inches of his forearm, protected further by his frostiron gauntlet.
Each section of the sleeve was intricately connected, with the entire sleeve secured to his body by leather straps that could be tightened around his bicep, forearm, and shoulder.
“So, I’ll need to make two plates for the bicep, two for the couter, one for the forearm, and six for the shoulder,” Archie muttered to himself, examining the chain-mail plated sleeves he received when he chose his Warrior class.
It seemed manageable; he had more than enough steel to attempt crafting and shaping the plates. The narrow tip of his precision anvil would aid in bending and forming each piece. His Forgesmith’s Flame would let him weld the parts together seamlessly.
The only challenging part would be shaping the couter—it was shaped like a heart, with the end being an elongated tip to cover the elbow and a slightly outward protruding top to allow his elbow to move without restriction.
But in order to grow, one must face adversity, and only then will you grow. And Archie was not one to run away from adversity. “If I have trouble and give up making a couter then how the hell am I supposed to make a bike?” Archie said with a smile, not to mention he hadn’t forgotten trying to connect his forging with nature spirits.
Hell, maybe he’ll make his bike run off of nature spirits, who said bikes can’t be eco-friendly.