New World Day 7

  On the morning of the seventh day in the New World, I woke to the familiar sensation of a bladder ready to burst. I threw on some clothes and grabbed my shotgun before racing out into the garage. I stopped just long enough to check for any beasts hanging outside in the driveway. It was my first time using it, and aside from some discomfort over doing my business out in the open, it worked great. Feeling much better, I took my time on my way back to the garage and looked for any new tracks around the garage door and toilet. The sunlight was blinding, but the ground was still damp and squishy. It must have rained during the night while I was sleeping. The rain made the ground soft enough that I could make out a number of prints in the ground near the toilet. There were some footprints from what I was pretty sure were forest coyotes. It looked like they were going down the hill towards the lake. More disconcerting, I saw some new goblin footprints mixed with the footprints of the larger mysterious creature. The coyotes were one thing, but the goblins worried me. I didn’t think the various beasts I had encountered so far would be smart enough to find me in my basement stronghold. However the goblins could be smart enough to find me there, and that larger footprint left me with a feeling of dread. I hoped it was just a larger than average goblin, but my instincts told me that I wasn’t that lucky.

  Sighing, I quickened my pace and returned to the relative safety of the garage. Once I was back inside, I closed my eyes and worked to calm my nerves. What would come would come regardless of my fears and worries. I just had to make sure I was as ready as I could be to face whatever it was. It’s not that easy to push your worries away. I needed some help centering myself so I decided to update my journals and begin my training for the day. I spent two hours recording everything I could remember about what I did the previous day and the two new beasts from last night. My body felt tight and cramped by the time I was finished. When I stood up, I took the time to stretch and loosen my muscles up. It was time to pick back up where I left off yesterday. I packed a backpack full of empty water bottles and my axe, picked up the rifle from the bedroom, and grabbed a box of extra ammo from the gun safe in the workshop. I did a quick once over of my supplies for the day’s outing and then strode out of the garage towards the front field.

  I intended to head to the same cow pond today as the previous day to acquire some more water and crayfish tails. Since the three beasts came to steal my food late in the afternoon, I was going to try cooking it early in the day to see what happened. I thought they were more nocturnal animals and wouldn’t appear earlier in the day, but only time would tell. I reached the modest cow pond with ease and set my backpack against that same little oak tree as the previous day. I still had a small stack of rocks from the previous day. I got into a stable shooting posture and threw a few down the hill towards the shore of the pond. Unfortunately, the soft ground absorbed the impact of the rocks much better than before. The waters of the lake remained calm. Nary a ripple appeared to mar the surface of the pond.

  As I considered the best way to entice the crayfish out of the pond, a realization came upon me. The current muddy conditions causing me a headache here were a missed opportunity back at the house. Both the storm from last night and the one from a few days ago represented chances to gather some drinking water with minimal effort on my part. If I had just left some buckets out to collect the rainwater, I would be able to acquire a bit of extra drinking water without any danger. I made a mental note to position a bunch of my buckets around the house to collect water from future storms.

  Cursing my own stupidity under my breath, I grabbed a couple more rocks, and instead of throwing them, I gave them a hard roll down the hill. It was harder to control their final destination, but they wouldn’t sink into the ground at least. The first couple of rocks pushed this way rolled all the way into the pond without any movement from anything within the lake. Did I wipe out the entire population yesterday? I thought about shifting to a different cow pond, but I decided to try a different portion of the pond first. I dragged a half dozen rocks to the opposite side of the lake and started rolling them down the hill once more. The ground shook beneath me and mud exploded into the air as four geyser crayfish smashed into the side of the hill. Success! Four quick shots later, I sat atop the hill separating the tails and mana stones from the bodies and making a small pile of limbs to distract the whirlpool bass. This time things went much better as I filled all of the water bottles without being attacked by the bass. I would have to strain the water still, but that wasn’t a difficult process.

  Delighted that things were going so well, I strode back across the road to my house. I stashed the water bottles in the garage and took a few buckets out from the workshop. I positioned one of them at each corner of the house to catch any future rain. Now it was time to see if an early cooking time made any difference. I took all four of the tails up to the fire pit along with the spices and a large towel and started preparing them just like the previous night. I rubbed the Cajun spices deep into the tails and started up the fire. It wasn’t long before the enticing smell filled the air once more. This time I had the shotgun raised and ready while I scanned the ground and sky for any approaching threats. Just when I thought that my theory was correct, a long low ribbit rumbled through the air. I whipped my head around and stared down the slight hill to the lake below. I saw two large green orbs with black slits in the middle of them peeking out of the surface of the lake. The damn frog was coming!

  I started to aim at the frog when a barrage of black scales rained down upon it. The frog cried out in pain and anger before it sank back into the depths of the lake. Multiple scales were stuck deep in its leathery hide. The angle of the scales made it clear that the attack had come from high above the lake. When I looked up to search the treetops I saw the massive black form of the python spread across several trees. How long had that freaking thing been up there! I began to mutter random curse words under my breath as I decided to cut and run. The tails were almost finished, and I didn’t want to hang around to see if the bird was going to make an appearance as well. I slung the shotgun on my shoulder, wrapped the towel around my right hand, and grabbed two of the tails. Following that, I kicked the others off the fire towards the barn and dashed towards the safety of the basement.

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  I wasn’t the only one who had learned something from the last night. The python kept an eye on me even as it faced off with the frog. Before I could run away to the basement, a volley of scales slashed through the air all around me. I let out a scream of pain as one of the wickedly sharp scales buried itself in my left shoulder blade. The pain that radiated out from my shoulder throughout the rest of my body combined with the force of the impact to send me tumbling to the ground. I half-crawled half-rolled toward the front porch of the house in a desperate attempt to get out of the python’s sight. A second volley of scales buried themselves into the soft ground behind me with a squish as I narrowly avoided the python’s finishing blow. Not everything was aces though. I landed on my shoulder after the roll and jammed the scale even deeper into my shoulder. That caused me to almost faint from the agony that ripped through my body. My breath came in ragged gasps as I staggered to my feet, my left arm hanging limp at my side, and stumbled down to the garage door. A long hiss filled with malice tickled my ears. Just as I feared the python was pursuing me, a high-pitched screech tore through the air and another rumbling ribbit emerged from the lake. The second battle royale was set, and just like last night I wasn’t going to stick around to see who won.

  I left a thick trail of blood behind me as I stumbled my way down the slight hill and into the garage. If I was thinking clearly I would have been worried about the trail leading some creature to my home, but the unbearable pain left me feeling like my mind was shrouded in fog. The only two things I could think of were getting to the garage and tearing that scale out of my shoulder. Thanks to the intervention of the bird and frog I had achieved one of those goals. Now it was time to confront the second and in some ways more daunting task. I slammed and locked the door behind me and threw the tails and shotgun onto the seat of one of the ATVs. I needed to sit down before I tried to pull out the scale. I limped over to the wall, leaned my left shoulder forward, and sat down against the cool concrete wall. It wasn’t easy to keep the back of my left shoulder from smacking into the wall. Each time the scale tapped the wall I grunted in pain. After a few tries I managed to get somewhat comfortable. I inched back with my right hand to where the scale was imbedded in my shoulder blade. I started to hyperventilate as my body anticipated what was to come. I closed my right hand around the scale and felt it cut into the flesh of my palm. At any other time that would have given me pause, but the mind-numbing pain from my shoulder overrode every other sense I possessed. Determined to get it over with, I strengthened my grip on the scale and with a soul-searing scream yanked the scale out of my shoulder. As I brought the scale over my head and into my line of sight I saw in horror that not only was a giant chunk of flesh torn from my body along with the scale, but the small barbs along the edge of the scale were now embedded into my right hand. The pain was overwhelming, and I felt the darkness closing in around me. With the last of my strength, I put the scale flat on the ground and used my right foot to kick the scale off of my hand. Blood splattered across the garage and chunk of flesh from my hand joined the one from my back, but it was done. The scale was out of body, and none too soon. I saw the darkness, the enticing pain free darkness, closing in around me.

You have reached level 4!

3 bonus stat points have been awarded!

Basic Regen (Passive) (B) * leveled up!

Basic Regen (Passive) (B) * leveled up!

Basic Regen (Passive) (B) * has evolved into Minor Regen (Passive) © *

Name: Jason Silver

Job Name: N/A

LVL: 4 3%

Job LVL: N/A 0%

Job Points:

N/A

N/A

Titles:

Survivor (B) LVL 4 95%

Fool (B) LVL 5 86%

Pack Killer (B) LVL 3 81%

Beast Killer (B) LVL 3 76%

Risk Taker (B) LVL 3 97%

Repeated Risk Taker ( C ) LVL 2 99%

Compassionate Fool ( C ) LVL 1 78%

Curious Fool ( C ) LVL 1 0%

Stupid Fool ( C ) LVL 1 76%

Title Points:

*

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*

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3

Stats:

HP:

MP:

Mana Regen:

Endurance:

Strength:

Speed:

Bonus Points:

23/125

10/10

2 per min (-1.75)

12

9

7

12

Status Effects:

Regen, Disease Resist, Parasite Resist, Poison Resist, Bleeding x3

Skills:

Basic Axe Mastery (B) LVL 7 56%

Basic Gun Mastery (B) LVL 4 78%

Minor Regen (Passive) © LVL 1 94%

Basic Disease Resist (Passive) (B) LVL 3 80%

Basic Parasite Resist (Passive) (B) LVL 3 90%

Basic Poison Resist (Passive) (B) LVL 3 20%

Basic Mana Control (B) LVL 6 48%

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