New World Day 6

  I awoke bright and early the next day feeling surprisingly refreshed. The insanity of the previous day served as an excellent outlet for all of the worry and depressing feelings that had been building inside of me ever since the New World began. Thanks to the clocks I knew that it was still only 6:00 AM and the sun hadn’t quite risen yet. Feeling a need to move move my body, I got up and changed into some jeans, a white long sleeved button up shirt, and my sole pair of tennis shoes. Once I was finished dressing, I began to bend, twist, and stretch to get all of the kinks and tightness out of my muscles. I let out a long satisfied breathe when I was finished. I wanted to get moving and do something! Anything at all really, but there were things that I needed to take care of first.

  The first thing I did was sit down and carefully record my adventures from the previous day including adding entries in my bestiary for the two snakes and the bison. The second snake received the name of earth swimmer thanks to the ease at which it moved through the earth, and I decided to call the bison thunder bison after the noise they made when they ran. I also had to add the new titles and skills to my records as well. By the time I had finished writing everything down it was already 7:30 AM. The sun was now up and so I grabbed the two lanterns, checked that the coast was clear outside the garage door, and headed outside. I placed the two lanterns in a sunny area on the rock wall near the garage door to recharge. Once I was satisfied with their positioning, I headed to the side of the house under the deck to do my morning business before I went back inside and sat on the loveseat ready to plan out the day ahead.

  Taking the original road to the state highway and then following that to Falmouth was obviously out after the events of yesterday. The herd of thunder bison and the earth swimmer made that a suicide mission. I could take a right at the front of the property and head towards Williamstown, but I honestly didn’t know how to get there. I had always come to my parents’ place via Falmouth. Since I couldn’t go the normal way and didn’t know how to take the Williamstown way, then I would need to find a new path. At the back of my parents’ property there was a meadow that wasn’t far from the state highway. If I could get to the meadow then I could cut through there and get to the road. Provided of course that the snake’s territory didn’t extend into the meadow. There were a couple of issues that I would have to tackle if I wanted to go that way though. First, the path to the meadow went through the forest, and I had no idea what kind of beasts and creatures might be waiting for me in there now. Second, I didn’t know how far away the meadow was anymore. The weird and seemingly patternless changes to the size of the landscape made it impossible to judge how far away I was from the meadow. Before the changes, It would have only taken a half hour to get to the meadow, but now it was anyone’s guess.

  I felt that the meadow was my best shot at avoiding the earth swimmer and getting to the highway, but I would need to get stronger and stockpile some extra food and water for a potentially long trek. First to the highway and then to Falmouth itself. My food and water were running a bit low already. I could last another week if I started rationing, but that was the best case scenario. It was time to test out the resistance skills that I had purchased from the System. Rubbing my chin in thought, I poured over my notes on the beasts that I had encountered so far and decided on the geyser crayfish as my first target. I would target the ones in the old cow pond across the street. Whenever I looked at the little lake, I got the feeling there were far more dangerous things waiting in its depths that I simply shouldn’t mess with. When it came to the geyser crayfish themselves, it was just that initial strike I had to be wary of. Once they were on dry land they weren’t nearly as dangerous as the other bests I had run into. The one that had broken my ankle only got the chance to do so because I was too busy dealing with forest coyotes to notice what it was doing. As a bonus, once I dealt with the geyser crayfish in the cow pond I could fill the empty plastic bottles and myriad of water bottles from the house with water from the pond.

  Of course once I successfully acquired my potential food there was still the matter of cooking it. There was an open air fire pit to the right of the house between it and the big barn, but cooking there might attract the black barbed python from the barn or some unknown nasty from the Small Lake just below the pit. It was a troubling issue, but I had a solution. I would move the stones that formed the pit up into the open lawn in front of the house. The additional distance away from the barn and lake, the short distance to my hideout, and the clear line of sight all around me should make it a lot safer to cook. Before all of that there was one other thing that I wanted to do first.

  Nodding to myself, I felt I had a good plan in mind for the day’s activities. The first task was something that I had been putting off for almost a week now. I strapped on the pistol, put the axe, a large knife my dad used for processing deer, and a bunch of empty water bottles in the backpack, and put it along with the shotgun, rifle, and a second empty backpack on the ATV barricade. Then I grabbed a shovel leaning against the garage wall near the door and carefully ventured outside. It was time to dig a proper hole for using the restroom. I didn’t want it to be too far from house, but it needed to be further than it currently was. The smell from the last few days’ accumulations was really starting to get to me. I decided to put it in the middle of the triangular stand of trees a little to the right of the garage that the driveway split around to get to the house and the garage. I dug a deep hole in the middle of the area and then took some rocks from the rock wall by the garage to build up a seat around the hole. As a finishing touch, I took the toilet seat from the first floor bathroom and duck taped it to the makeshift seat. It wasn’t pretty, but it would have to do for now.

  Satisfied with the resulting restroom, I returned to the garage and grabbed my backpack and guns. It was time to hunt some crayfish! While I was as quite cautious walking to the cow pond, it turned into a nice stroll. The sun was shining, there were only a few thin clouds in the sky, and a gentle breeze blew through the open fields. Without anyone to plant anything, the grass in the fields had grown to knee high already, and as they swayed in the wind it was like an ocean of grass was waving at me. The dense grass kept me from seeing any footprints in the dirt, but I could see from how various areas of grass were beaten down that there creatures that were traveling through the fields. I was given quite a fright when I reached the gate of my parent’s property. A small herd of Old World deer jumped up from the grass and dashed over the edge of the ridgeline into the forest below. They would have been a much safer food source than the crayfish, but they ran off before I could take aim at them. Even though they got away, the sight of the deer caused a gentle smile to cross my face as I realized that there were more Old World creatures still left than I had believed.

  Smiling all the way, I opened the front gate and strolled across the black top road to the house and cow pond across the street. A faint whiff of decay tickled my nostrils, but I ignored it as I came to the edge of the hill that led down to the cow pond. I carefully laid the shotgun and my two backpacks against a small oak tree atop the hill whose branches and leaves were swaying and rattling in the wind. Then I began scouring the area for every big rock I could find and stacked them by the tree as well. Once my collection reached 30 large rocks and 50 small ones, I settled down on one knee next to them and pulled the rifle off my shoulder and into one hand. With my other hand, I grabbed one of the large rocks and tossed it over the edge of the hill. Unfortunately, my first toss was too hard and the rock rolled all the way into the water with a plop. My second and third tosses were both too light. They stopped not even half way down the hill and didn’t alarm the crayfish in the slightest. The fourth toss was perfect! It landed half way down the hill with a powerful thud and then rolled further down the hill. Each turn of the roll was accompanied by a progressively quieter thump before coming to stop maybe a dozen yards from the water’s edge. Every roll and each thump caused ripples to spread throughout the pond from the shoreline in front of the rock until with an enormous splash three brown blurs shot out of the pond and smashed into the side of the hill with a deafening crash. The rock was turned to dust by one of the three crayfish and the three of them looked around in confusion when no prey was immediately in sight. The three of them milling around aimlessly made perfect targets. Putting the butt of the rifle into my shoulder and steadying myself on my one raised knee, I sighted down hill at them and smoothly pulled the trigger three times.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

  The crayfish all fell to the ground dead with pieces of their now shattered shells raining down around them. They had been so close together that I only had to shift my aim slightly between each shot, and they were too slow on land to have any chance of dodging my bullets. I was tempted to go down and collect my prize, but I needed to make sure that there weren’t any more on this side of the pond. I shifted my position slightly and tossed a couple dozen more rocks over the edge. After those throws, one more crayfish was tricked out of the water to its death. Satisfied that there weren’t anymore of the geyser crayfish on my side of the pond, I slowly stepped down to the four corpses and dragged all four of them to the top of the hill. Then I took out the large knife and tried to cut off their tails. Unfortunately, the shells were too hard to cut even with that knife. I had to turn to my axe and really get a good swing in to remove the tails. It took a bit of time, but I cut off the tails of all four, gouged out the mana stone which turned out to be in the main body just in front of the tail, and put all four tails and the stones in the empty backpack. I had to really force it to get all four tails in the backpack, but I made it work.

  With that finished, it was time to fill up all of my water bottles. I took the other backpack with the axe and empty water bottles and carefully walked down to the edge of the water. I kept an eye on the water as I made my way down the hill, but no ripples emerged atop the pond the entire way. Carefully I pulled out a large clear hard plastic water bottle, unscrewed its blue top, and dipped it into the water filling it to the brim. A swirl of dirt and plants flooded in along with the water causing it to take on an unappetizing opaque brown color. I’d have to strain it if possible before I drank any of it. I put that bottle aside and grabbed a second identical bottle to fill up, but when I put this bottle into the water a three foot whirlpool formed right in front of my hand. The sudden appearance of the whirlpool combined with its surprising strength almost pulled me straight into the pond. I struggled against the whirlpool and tried to pull my hand and water bottle out of the water. However, the whirlpool didn’t want to let go of me, but with one final heave I yanked them out of the water. The force of the final pull combined with the sudden loss of an opposing force when my hand left the water caused me to fall backwards and slam into the side of the hill. My back was battered, bruised, and bloody after I crashed into the rocks that littered the hillside. Rocks that I, of course, had thrown there just minutes before. Karma really is a bitch.

  Standing back up and trying my best not rub my back, I screwed the cap on the water bottle in my hand and stared down at the water. I wanted to see if I could find what had caused that whirlpool. Eventually, I spied the shadow of a fish that was about a foot and a half long. It was a solid lime green, and it had a long chunky body with a massively oversized head and jaw with two eyes set on top of its head instead of the sides. I couldn’t see inside of the fish’s mouth, but I strongly suspected it was filled with rows of sharp teeth. I edged forward towards the shore just enough to snag the first water bottle I had left there and then immediately backed away. Two water bottles were full, but I had another dozen to go. I needed to give that fish and any others like it a distraction of some kind. A light went off in my head when I thought of the crayfish remains on the top of the hill. I still had quite a few rocks up there that might scare it away for awhile, but I wasn’t sure how long it would stay away. Instead, I would give it something to eat that would hopefully keep it busy.

  I ran back up the hill and quickly cut the legs and claws off of the big crayfish with my axe, and carried them down the hill towards the shoreline. I put the bundle on the ground just in front of the water’s edge. Slowly I took out an empty water bottle and unscrewed the top, then I tossed one of the crayfish legs into the pond about ten feet in front of me. Immediately, I saw the fish swim away to the source of the disturbance and to my great surprise a half dozen whirlpools formed around the crayfish leg and yanked it underwater. While the fish were distracted, I quickly filled one water bottle after another making sure to toss a new leg or claw in with each bottle filled. Once I had all of the bottles filled, I backed away from the water, checked that the caps were securely fastened on the water bottles, and tossed them in my backpack. Then I ran back up the hill to the small oak tree. I had my food and water, but now it was time to cook!

Name: Jason Silver

Job Name: N/A

LVL: 3 52%

Job LVL: N/A 0%

Job Points:

N/A

N/A

Titles:

Survivor (B) LVL 3 99%

Fool (B) LVL 4 99%

Pack Killer (B) LVL 3 81%

Beast Killer (B) LVL 3 76%

Risk Taker (B) LVL 3 50%

Repeated Risk Taker ( C ) LVL 2 90%

Compassionate Fool ( C ) LVL 1 78%

Curious Fool ( C ) LVL 1 0%

Stupid Fool ( C ) LVL 1 0%

Title Points:

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

3

Stats:

HP:

MP:

Mana Regen:

Endurance:

Strength:

Speed:

Bonus Points:

119/125

10/10

2 per min (-1.75)

11

9

7

9

Status Effects:

Regen, Disease Resist, Parasite Resist, Poison Resist

Skills:

Basic Axe Mastery (B) LVL 7 10%

Basic Gun Mastery (B) LVL 4 78%

Basic Regen (Passive) (B) LVL 7 42%

Basic Disease Resist (Passive) (B) LVL 1 34%

Basic Parasite Resist (Passive) (B) LVL 1 10%

Basic Poison Resist (Passive) (B) LVL 1 0%

Basic Mana Control (B) LVL 5 22%

*

*

*

*

*

*

*