The Banded Roc eyed the scaly humanoid walking up the shoreline. It didn't particularly care about the strange creature one way or another. No, the focus of its intense glare was the freshly-killed Silver Lake Chub dangling from its hand. Though it still felt weak, the beast couldn't resist the pungent, oily scent of its favorite food. This was an easy opportunity. One that it couldn't pass up.
Taking advantage of the bigger creatures inattention, the Roc began creeping forward.
Reliving his most recent failure, Alan was so lost in thought that he never even saw it coming. The exhausted Roc let out a shrill cry right as it sprinted out of the grass right next to him. Ripping his catch out of his grasp, and nipping several of his fingers in the process.
“Ouch!“ Alan growled more out of surprise than from actual pain, balling up his fists and shouting at the winged robber. “You greedy little shit! Fuck it man, you can have the damned thing.” Alan was annoyed, yet still a smile broke through. It was good to see the little thief up and about.
With no intentions of sharing, and a wary eye on the previous owner of the fish, the Roc wasted no time devouring it's stolen prize. A flabbergasted Alan watched in disbelief as the thief threw back its head, and devoured the entire fish in a single noisy bite.
All two-and-a-half-feet of it. “I did NOT see that one coming… How is that even possible!“ No matter how he considered it, the whole thing really didn't make sense. That Chub had been nearly twice as long as the Roc's torso. So unless it had a storage space hidden in its guts, Alan was at a loss as to where the bird was keeping it.
With a long, tired sigh, he threw up his arms in disbelief, and flopped down in the grass. There wasn't really any reason for him to get mad, it wasn't like he had a fire to cook the Chub with anyways. Nor did he actually plan on eating it. Yet as he tried to rationalize the loss of his catch, he still felt a bit annoyed. His aggravation only increased when the satisfied Roc hopped up onto Su'ong's cocoon, hid its head under a wing, and hunkered down for a nap.
“Must be nice to take a nap” Alan grumbled. He felt a bit silly for getting jealous of a sleeping bird, but Gods damnit, he was tired too. Although the situation was frustrating, he couldn't stop himself from cracking a smile. As long as the Roc didn't start pecking at the cocoon's leathery shell, he didn't see any harm in letting it sleep off the days excitement.
Bored, and somewhat curious as to the birds condition, Alan activated [Examine].
Lvl 3 Banded Roc HP: 13/27
“At least someone gained a level out of all that,” Alan snorted in irritation. His displeasure didn't stop him from laughing when the sleeping Roc tumbled off of Su'ong's cocoon and landed on the ground in a disgruntled heap of noisy feathers
The bird was determined to perch on top of that egg, regardless of the results. After watching it repetitively falling over in its attempts to get some sleep, Alan decided to try to help. “Realistically, I need to gather up some firewood, and make a bow drill anyways. Why not try to make that stupid bird something to stand on while I'm at it.“
Mumbling under his breath, Alan waited for the Roc to tumble back into the grass one more time, and set off with a satisfied smile. Though it wasn't the glorious revenge he'd sworn when the Roc shit on him, at least it was amusing. His current objective, to loot any dried wood or sticks that were laying under the canopy of the closest trees.
He wasn't comfortable with being gone for more than a few minutes at a time. With the Safe Zone protections in place, it was likely over-worrying on his part. Still, he couldn't help but feel protective over the contents of that cocoon. Not to mention he was beginning to worry about the dead Rocs spoiling before he had a chance to make a fire to cook them with.
It had only been a few hours, and the temperature was mild, so he thought they should be safe to eat for a few more hours. However, having never dealt with cooking a bird before, he realistically had no idea how long they would remain fresh.
“Dumbass, you should've done this hours ago!“ Alan shook his head at his own shortsightedness. He had admittedly gotten caught up in his [Water Manipulation] practice. Dealing with the Roc suddenly falling out of the sky hadn't helped him to stay on track either. And until that asshole stole his fish, he'd honestly forgotten all about cooking something to eat.
It didn't help that after having a Storage Ring for all this time, he'd grown accustomed to his food being fresh and ready on demand. Reality came crashing back down, and once again, Alan wanted nothing so much as he desired regaining access to his inventory. He was going to have to figure something out. Not only was all of his equipment in there, but both his, and Su'ong's Class Scrolls were in it as well.
“Gods damnit! I bet I could start a fire with that Fire Crystal in less time than it took that damned bird to eat my fish…” Alan groaned. Thinking about all the things he couldn't use was doing nothing more than pissing him off.
It was simultaneously making him nervous. The only thing keeping him from devolving into a panic was the off chance that Su'ong could access his Storage Ring. Their Souls were connected, so she should be able to access his inventory right? At least that was his thought. He sure hoped she could. If not, he was at a loss for what to do.
“Hey Reggie!“ Alan decided to ask for assistance. “I don't know if you can hear me, but I think I messed up man…”
After making several trips to loot the nearby trees of all fallen branches, Alan had yet to receive an answer from the Wraith. But he did have a nice pile of firewood built up. Alan activated [Earth Manipulation] and made short work of digging out a small fire pit. The Skill was active, he was sure of it. Only, it wasn't actually doing anything. “I've gotta be doing something wrong here…”
It was pretty clear that either he was missing some vital knowledge pertaining to the intricacies of manipulating the elements, or he was simply going about it the wrong way. Maybe it had something to do with his Race. There were too many possibilities. Like everything else, he simply didn't have enough information to make more than a guess.
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Quitting made him feel like a failure, yet he had more important things to take care of. Alan sighed in defeat, deactivated [Earth Manipulation], and then got back to work before he became distracted once again. Those Roc remains weren't going to be edible forever after all.
Hoping to prevent a wildfire, Alan gathered up ten of the biggest rocks that could be found on his side of the Lakeshore. The heavy stones were lugged back to the fire pit one or two at a time, and placed in a tight circle around it.
A hot meal was so close, he could practically taste it.
Another fifteen minutes were spent clumsily carving out a fireboard. Although it was nothing more than a piece of flattened-off wood with a large lowercase I carved into it, he found it wasn't an easy thing to do with nothing but his claws to rely on.
It also didn't help that all of a sudden, Alan was finding it difficult to manage his own strength. His first several attempts ended in little more than frustration whan the slightest squeeze of his fingers crushed all of his progress. Reducing it into a fibrous mess of dust and wood pulp.
"What's with these cheap ass trees?" Alan wondered, discarding another one of his failures. It was annoying, yet his efforts were enough to get a handle on how much pressure he could safely apply.
He even ended up learning a new Skill, and building up a decent supply of Tinder along the way.
Remarkable! Due to your basic understanding of cutting and shaping wood, you have acquired the (Common) Skill [Whittling]!
[Whittling] Lvl 1- This Passive Skill slightly increases your aptitude for carving wood into functional tools.
Aptitude increases with Skill Level.
With a better grasp on his strength, and a new Skill to bolster his attempts, Alan returned to cutting a notch into the bottom of a thick branch. Using a wedge-shaped rock like a hammer, he drove it into the notch, splitting it longways down the middle. Having already managed to ruin the majority of his samples, He had to try and be as careful as possible. Alan only had a single branch left that was dry enough to use, as well as being the proper size and shape to work with.
He soon held a flattened off section for the fireboard to rest on. He placed the soon-to-be fireboard on the ground, and got to work scratching out a small trench in the center. From what he could remember, it needed to be around the same size as one of his fingers. Satisfied with the results, he then dug a deep hole at one end of the trench that would be used to hold the tip of the actual drill.
Remarkable! Your Skill (C) [Whittling] has grown to Level 2!
“You're not the prettiest fireboard that's ever been made,” Alan admitted after inspecting his handiwork. It wasn't much to look at. But as far as he could tell, it would be good enough to get an ember started. “Probably,” he conceded.
Riding the effects of his new Skill, the drill was the easy part to make. All it took to was finding a nice straight stick about the same thickness as his finger. His selection made, he finished it off by trimming away any remaining twigs or protrusions that might dig into his hands, and then sharpening one end.
Technically, the last step was to make the bow. Except he didn't have any type of cordage to make it with. Although Alan briefly searched for a substitute, he wasn't really sure what he should be looking for. He'd never had to do this on the spot. Tendons from the Roc corpses might work, but the meat would surely be rotten long before they were dry enough to use.
“Elbow grease it is,” Alan grumbled as he gathered up all of his wood shavings to make a proper tinder pile. Mainly he was looking for the curled up strips, but he settled for whatever scraps he could find. While he was at it, he went ahead and a broke a bunch of twigs down into small pieces and set them to the side of his fire pit.
Luckily, the bow was completely unnecessary. With his increased Stats, he rubbed that drill between his hands so fast, that he worried the heat and friction alone would start a fire if he went on for much longer. Within thirty seconds, there was a healthy pile of embers built in the hole on the fireboard. Tossing his drill to the side, Alan carefully picked up the fireboard and the smouldering embers it supported. Time was already working against him as he dumped them on his tinder pile.
After covering the smoking tinder with his hands, Alan gently blew on the cooling embers just hard enough to get them glowing red hot.
“Yes! Yes! I did it!!“ Alan cheered. The crackle and pop of igniting wood was like music to his ears. Taking care not to disturb the tinder pile, he built a small pyramid of twigs around the tiny flame. As soon as those were burning, he started layering on the big sticks.
He'd done it. And it wasn't nearly as bad as he had thought it was going to be. “I'd like to see Rexus do that!“ Alan gloated. Although he knew the personal-record-smashing accomplishment was only possible due to his increased Stats, they were his Stats, and he'd earned them. By default, that made it his success.
Now all Alan had to do was allow the fire to build up. Since he had time to kill, he retrieved the Roc corpses from the tree he'd hung them in, and butchered the remains at the edge of the lake. Without a knife, that turned out to be a messy process, one that quickly attracted a swarm of hungry Lake Chubs to devour the blood and discarded organs.
After cleaning up as best he could, Alan activated [Water Manipulation], and held as still as possible. The moment a Chub swam close, he plunged his hands into the lake and tried to trap it in a sphere of water. The fish thrashed against its invisible boundary, yet it was unable to escape before being lifted up out of the lake.
Remarkable! Your Skill (U) [Water Manipulation] has grown to Level 2!
With a sharp-toothed smile, Alan tossed the orb of water containing the Chub onto the shore before it could escape. “[Water Manipulation] for the win!“ Alan couldn't help but gloat over his first real success with the Skill. Having spent his entire life relying on fishing poles, it was a total game-changer.
“Sorry little dude,” Alan said as he split the Lake Chub in half, sending it on life's final voyage.
Remarkable! You have defeated a Lvl 2 Silver Lake Chub! +8 Exp!
Remarkable! You have reached level 2! +5 free Status Points!
146 Exp to next Level!
Alan was still congratulating himself as he washed the Chub's blood from his hands. He had a few ideas, but he wasn't sure what to spend the Stat Points on. For a moment, he considered waiting for Su'ong to wake up. He already had a thousand questions to ask her, so he didn't think one more was going to make much of a difference.
It didn't take long for him to spot a glaring issue in his reasoning. Although Su'ong seemed to get excited, and go into long-winded explanations when she was able to put her knowledge on display, she didn't seem to like it when Alan pestered her for answers. When he pictured her irritated glare, he made the wise choice to handle it himself.
After all, if she believed Alan couldn't handle something as simple as his own Stat allocation, chances were, she was going to get mad. In an attempt to avoid any unnecessary tension, Alan put some serious thought into it.
In the end, he decided to go with his first instinct. For the foreseeable future, it would seem he was going to be stuck carving tools and weapons from wood. He still needed to make a few spears and clubs, as well as cobble together something for the Roc to perch on.
So why not up his Dexterity a bit, and make it easier on himself?