Dens blinked at the box for a moment. This was progress, real progress. If the powers that be recognized that this was a firemaking method, then she was on her way to making fire in a way they would approve of, right?
Of course.
Dens eagerly clicked yes. It gave her more material to work with last time, why not try to improve her tools?
She sat back, waiting for the material to transform. What was the process last time?
Oh, that’s right. Dens almost missed the notebook glow in her idle state.
Campfire
Relevant Inklings
Firemaking (Friction)
Level 1
Firemaking is the process of creating a fire. In making a fire, one needs three things: Oxygen, heat, and fuel. The first step is generally heating Tinder to the point of autoignition. It’s been an important mark for any communicable species’ survival.
Friction is among the earliest methods for making fire.
- Hand Drill
Fuel
Level 0
Tinder
Level 1
Tinder is made up of small pieces of easily flammable material used for starting a fire. Heat them to the point of autoignition and place them in KINDLING to get one going.
- Reedmace
So that was that. She had officially unlocked firemaking. Dens looked to the sky, as if it should be filled with some notification of completion.
Nothing.
It said something about constructing a campfire, too. Darn.
She looked to the little pile of tinder, which was no longer producing smoke, before sighing. She kicked dirt over what she had, and cleared her mind. She would need a place to put the fire once she had it going, too. She hadn’t even thought to do that. If she was going to have to invent all this stuff, she needed to start taking it seriously.
She walked to the pond’s edge once more, and stared deep into the water. There were no fish swimming around, no bugs gliding near the surface.
That and the lack of birdsong itched at the back of her mind.
She rolled up her sleeve, then reached into the water, fishing around for a second. She pulled out a sizable stone and put it beside her. Her hand went back into the water, then pulled out another. Another, and another. Before long, she had a small pile.
She glanced towards her old clearing and moved her pile a bit away. She put the stones in a circle, then dug a little divet in the middle of it.
It would be a serviceable fire pit.
She kind of expected a notification of some kind. Maybe a FIRE PIT (UNLIT) or something. Ah, wait, she would need more wood, wouldn’t she?
She looked pack to the forest. A few more branches would probably be serviceable. If they weren’t, well, she would cross that bridge when she got to it.
Ten minutes later, she returned to the clearing with a bundle of sticks.
She sat down in the dirt and got to peeling all the branches. She started to whistle, just to fill out some sort of noise. Other than the constant wind, there was nothing going on. It was starting to eat at her. By the time she was at the end of her fourth improvised tune, there weren’t any more sticks to peel.
She grabbed several sheets of bark. They had all peeled away easily. Really easily, actually. She thought maybe she’d unlocked some sort of woodworking notebook thing, but the text remained unchanged. With the potential tinder in hand, she thought really hard about it being tinder.
Luckily, whatever was doing this understood what she meant.
BIRCH BARK X Material Tags
* Tinder - LV. 0
BIRCH BARK
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Material currently unsuitable for Tinder.
Convert using TINDER LV. 1?
YES NO
Another tap of the yes button and she had plenty of suitable tinder.
She still had plenty of birch bark left over. She tapped her chin, thinking for a moment, before setting it aside. There had to be something it would be good for. Maybe even something other than tinder.
She tossed all but two of the sticks into the pile, saving one particularly thick stick and one that seemed pretty straight. Now that she knew what she was looking for, it was a lot easier to find suitable material.
Holding the two sticks in hand, she thought really hard about using them to start a fire.
BIRCH BRANCHES X Material Tags
* Firemaking (Friction) - LV. 0
* Fuel - LV. 0
Oh, that was nice. Maybe because she tossed them into the campfire it had already recognized what she intended? She shrugged. Something she might not have to worry about in what, ten minutes? She had this in the bag.
She tapped the first option.
BIRCH BRANCHES
Material currently unsuitable for Firemaking (Friction).
Convert using FIREMAKING (FRICTION) LV. 1?
YES NO
She held her breath and tapped yes. They grew hot in her hands, too hot to hold. Wincing, she dropped the two on the ground. When the emerald glow subsided, she kneeled down.
The thinner branch didn’t look much different, maybe a bit straighter, but nothing more. The other branch on the other hand had changed completely. It had flattened out a great deal, and there was even a small divot, presumably where she was supposed to start grinding.
That was… kind of an unbelievable bit of help. She hadn’t even thought to create a hole in the middle so the… embers? She didn’t know the term. So the embers wouldn’t fly out.
She sat back and took a deep breath. This was the final step.
She piled the tinder around, pressed the thin stick into the divot, and began to spin.
Once more, just when she thought she wasn’t making any progress, smoke began to trickle. She spun the stick, faster and faster, until the smoke turned from a trickle into the familiar stream.
Quickly, she leaned down and blew into it, gently at first. Then, she saw it. Her first ember. She almost fell back but quickly recovered. She blew again. And again. And again. The ember grew, turning from a dull orange into the red jewel of flame she needed.
Holding the plate on which the flame burned, she moved over to the campfire, carefully pouring it out onto the wood.
It began to dim.
“No! God, just light!” she cried, before remembering herself. She got down on all fours and got to blowing once more. She said a silent prayer, and blew as best she could.
One second, it was a pile of embers dying in a stone circle. The next, a fire was burning.
She finally committed to stumbling back, landing in the dirt. She took back the several breaths she expended in the fire.
RESEARCH COMPLETE You have successfully constructed a FIRE-based structure. CONFIRM
So, that was it, right? She looked over to the campfire, slowly eating away at the sticks.
BIRCH BRANCHES X Material Tags
* Firemaking (Friction) - LV. 0
* Fuel - LV. 0
UPGRADE
Huh, that was neat.
She was about to tap upgrade, before several things happened all at once.
First, she realized she was thirsty. Second, she realized the scrapes on her hands from grinding the wood weren’t going away. Third, she realized she could use a good nap.
And finally, she heard someone screaming.
----------------------------------------
Hal leaned back in its chair. Finally, the diplomat had gotten past the first stage. Sure, the whole process was well behind the planned schedule, but the species’ was known for exponential growth. What time they were missing now, surely they would make up later.
It got up from the chair, stretching. This person reaching this stage meant that Hal could finally clock out, at least for a while.
It had thought this over a bit, actually. It really didn’t want to leave things on autopilot, especially with how stubborn this subject could be, but at the end of the day, with hunger, thirst, and fatigue enabled, there should be more than enough motivation for the diplomat to work through Hal’s night.
It stood at the glass doors before passing through them. Down the hall, to the right. A rectangular room with a desk had two elevators on one wall, one door on the opposite, and the two hallways that linked it to the offices.
At most, there were three entities on this floor. Right now, there should be only two.
Hal knocked on the door. The light above it flashed purple, and it let itself in.
“Hal! How are you doing?” the other entity in the room asked.
“Shikar. How are you doing? I am doing well,” it said. “How are you doing?”
“Hal, stop it with all those customs. When it’s just you, me, and Reiko, we can just relax a little,” Shikar replied.
“Thank you. The trial is going well. Diplomat Aleph has generated the first survival structure for its species class. To use a metaphor, it looks like we’ve got a spark here.”
“Hah! That’s why you’re here Hal. It seems like… ah… what are they called?”
“Humans, I believe.”
“Humans! It seems like you and Humans are a good match. You know Arlene wouldn’t take it?”
“I did not know that. May I ask why you believe I and humans are a good match?”
Shikar grabbed what looked like a USB stick in its appendage, twirling it idly. “You’re… unusual. You make suboptimal decisions. As far as Dogians go, Hal,” it put its plaything down, “You’re the most Human one we could generate.”
“I… Thank you,” Hal said.
“Of course, Hal. So, time for us to exit?”
“Yes, sir. The system is on autopilot, I have calculated there is no risk of malfunction while we are away.”
“That’s what I like to hear. You go on ahead, Hal. I’ve got some…” it trailed off, motioning to stacks of chips on its desk.
“Of course sir.”