[Lizardscale Chestplate] = 2 Scalehide (Level 6+, 0.4-0.6m) + 2 Scalehide (Level 6+, 0.35-0.4m) + 2 Scalehide (Level 6+, 0.15-0.2m) + 20 Twine (Hemp, 0.3-0.4m) + 40 Bone (level 6+, 0.03-0.05kg)+ [Knife] (Any) + [Workbench] (Any)
----------------------------------------
This group had really gone all out.
That was all Jay could think of as he studied their bases from afar as the sun rose up. Naomi and her friends seemed to have set up around the harbor south of him like Sayid had said, their camps jutting out from the water beneath.
Granted, calling what they’d built “camps” underplayed the sheer breadth established in this part of the island. A group of small boats sat in the harbor’s center, with a dock running between.
Though it would have been impossible to make out the fine details from the safety of the plateau he’d scaled miles away, he could see it all when supplementing his sight with [Sharpshooter] vision to get a clear look. The bonus sight came with a disadvantage, however. He could only hold [Sharpshooter] for ten seconds in a row, he had to have an arrow once he initiated the power of the skill, and it took time to recover between shots after expending all his energy.
But the detriments were worthwhile. Jay wasn’t about to walk nearby after what Sayid warned him, after all, and he preferred to scope these E-Rank bases without knowing he was there.
They still couldn’t be trusted.
One camp had been set up as a treehouse, with long wooden planks interweaving between dozens of elms, and a walled-in monstrosity that sat in the middle, spanning around a palm the size of a redwood. A tangle of ropes and wires shot out to various places on the jungle floor, possibly as ziplines.
Another seemed to have been mined straight into the cliff. A stone half-tower rose up from the granite hill, with all nearby trees removed. The whole area seemed to have been terraformed into a quarry, with the rocks smooth and steep unnaturally, and winding paths that snaked around their edge.
The next looked like a wealthy countryside manor, with a cobblestone path winding up to the tallest ridge, and hedges trimmed to the sides. Whitestone rose more than three stories. Sunlight reflected against glass windows. Even the roof was tiled, with crenelations along the edges for an added touch. Were it not for the layer after layer of extra stone walls laced with spikes along its exterior, Jay would almost think this mansion had been pulled from Earth.
And the final one sat on the beach, right near the water. At first, Jay was reminded of his Fort Knox, with simple, unadorned wood forming a quaint lodge and giant angular furnace beside, practically the same height. But the longer he stared at this spot, the more he could see the intricacies beneath. The nearest dunes held spike traps tipped with iron points, there were gun barrels poking out of the shack’s windows, and though he couldn’t say for certain, those small metal objects just beneath the sand looked like landmines.
That’s where he saw Naomi. She strolled out the door and began to march inland, her blue cloak flapping with the ocean breeze, and musket in hand. Her movement was quick and precise as she made the hike up.
Jay fired his crude arrow and exhaled. It whizzed into the distance before dropping, still miles away. Not even [Sharpshooter] could make a bow shoot further than normal.
He rubbed the bags beneath his eyes, ready to continue. He checked his Stats.
Name: Jay Reis (Primal Age)
Vitality – 39/39
Hunger – 36/72
Thirst – 14/24 (Sweltering)
Fatigue – 6/8 (Poorly Rested+4)
Sanity – 82/100
Just as he’d feared, being Poorly Rested had reached another level. Even after taking an early-morning nap to recover to full, Jay still only had eight hours to make this work, or to keep taking continuous naps throughout the day. By beginning this trek, he knew how this had to go down.
Jay would either use this day to its fullest and win the night or never see tomorrow. Too much was at stake.
The trip to intercept her went quicker than he’d expected, even with the lizardscale armor to slow him down. The direction was generous though, and with a smooth but steady decline in terrain, he reached where he’d planned before the hour was up.
Finding where his target went next was a different matter. Jay bumbled around the area, hoping he’d see footprints or at least hear gunshots, but his ability to find any signs of life was greatly limited. Thankfully, he’d been counting on that to minimize threats. No doubt these higher rank Expatriates had destroyed anything nearby, though this also made them harder to reach.
In the end, Naomi caught him first.
“You trying to follow me?” she called out from her vantage point on a ridge above.
“Yes,” Jay responded. There was no reason to lie.
“At least you’re not being subtle.” She hopped down, plummeting a good twenty feet before hitting the ground, no sign of feeling the impact whatsoever. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“I need you to give me information.”
She crossed her arms. “Oh, really? I heard from Sayid that you didn’t want anything to do with us.”
“I don’t. But the way I figure it, you still owe me.” He stared deep. “You said you were helping me when you took my loot, but in the end, Natura ended up too strong to handle anyway. So, that was a lie.”
Naomi grit her teeth. “I had no way of knowing it was day 7 for you.”
Jay nodded. “True, but that doesn’t change the facts. I found a bunch of stuff that would have made my life easier when I needed it most. I went through the Guide after that too. That boon works as a permanent character buff. I could’ve raised my vitality or moved faster, which is the difference between life and death. The meds and water would have been especially great since their vitality cap is well into the hundreds. And that steel knife would’ve been a godsend in any fight. But you took everything from me, all while telling yourself it was for my own good.”
Her cheeks darkened. “That’s not my fault. If anything, it could have been worse.”
“Or it could have been better.” He stared deep. “Don’t lie to yourself. Sure, you might’ve saved my life from that Guardian, but if I end up dying because of what you did after, is that really any different?”
Her brow was practically twitching with the acknowledgment.
Jay wasn’t being naive. He could see the other side of things too. If he’d been having this much trouble now, then the extra overleveled loot might have been the difference between monsters he could run from and those that would trap him in the blink of an eye.
But a bigger part of him just didn’t give a shit either. Not after the way this week had played out. So if guilting someone stronger than him got him the intel he needed, then what difference would that make? Naomi could spend the week feeling like a jackass for all he cared, and he’d go back the way he came.
“Fine,” she said at last. “What do you want from me?”
“Answers. I want you to answer every question I give you to the fullest extent you’re able. And don’t give me any BS about Natura. I already know how it works.”
For a moment, Naomi said nothing, her dark eyes locked with his. Jay watched back, refusing to relent.
Then she averted her gaze, ashamed. “Fair enough. I won’t hold anything back… If I know the answer.” She held up a hand, her fingers sprawled out. “You get five. Make them count.”
Jay smirked, ever so slightly.
“What is the most efficient way to find monster cores?” he started.
“Research,” she said.
“How does that work?”
“You take parts of a similar-Ranked monster body to your table like anything else, and spend time studying it. After you’ve invested enough of your day, the Guide will update with relevant monster information, making tracking them significantly easier.” She grinned. “A fun little trick though is that if you expend a monster core on this research at the right level during Primal, it is practically instant. Menageries also help, but they don’t come until far later.”
Buzz.
They both looked to their Guides, knowing the alert that had just come. Jay grimaced, somehow feeling Natura’s eyes on them, even now.
“So you’re saying that the best thing I can do is to spend a core at a research table to make it easier to find more?”
“Correct.” Naomi held up four fingers. “That’s one answer for you. What else?”
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“This spear has a level 18 monster core in it right now, but it breaks after only a few [Thrusts], no matter how much I reinforce it. How do I make it stronger?”
“Isn’t that obvious? You use better mats.”
“But how can I do that if the recipe calls certain things?” Jay asked. “I did exactly as it said.”
She tilted her head sideways. “Missing the tutorial really screwed you, didn’t it? No, the recipes are a baseline recommendation, not a hard limit.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think of it this way… That spear is a combination of three elements: the hilt, the tip, and the binding. Only the material in the tip defines what type of spear it is. Everything else supplements its strength. So, a stronger hilt affects its durability reduction, while stronger binding increases the total durability. Your weapons and armor are always leveling up based on what’s put inside them, which lets them survive longer in a fight. Each component must be balanced to accommodate the core.”
Buzz.
Jay leaned forth. “What’s the point of the monster core then? I thought it made everything stronger.”
“No, it only makes its capacity for strength greater than before. By drawing on the power of the monster you killed, you can make a shitty piece of flint powerful enough to break through a boulder.
“But flint is still flint. Just as plastic bowls will melt if they sit in a microwave for so long, you’ll always be material-limited without upgrading it into glass. The cores become more powerful than the weapons they’re infused onto. My recommendation is to always upscale the hilt and binding into the best mats you can get your hands on.”
Buzz.
“That’s three questions.”
Jay scoffed. “That doesn’t count! I was just clarifying the question before.”
“Bring it up with the Guide,” Naomi said with a grin. “It knows what we’re doing better than we do.”
He grit his teeth. First, Jay missed his tutorial, and now, he was being penalized for getting that information back. What a joke!
Jay thought hard about what he had to ask next. Now that he understood how his gear worked better, many pieces were falling into place. The “Hardened+1” modifier in his armor must have come from using a level 18 komodo dragon, rather than one of the smaller and weaker ones he’d seen, just like the “Reinforced” boost came when he used his shirt’s cloth on the first couple days, or hemp later on.
By using higher-quality materials, he had inadvertently made his gear’s capacity for their cores better without realizing it. But getting the +4 in the spear was the first time he’d overextended.
He also had the “research” riddle mostly uncovered. Though Naomi only explained how this related to monsters, Jay suspected the same would be true for weapons and gear. The Guide had implied as much when he first uncovered the recipe. Time wasn’t a luxury he could afford right now though, and unlocking new recipes was pointless when he had a killer weapon already that just needed to be balanced out.
But he still had a couple questions left, and he wanted to make them count…
“What would you do now if you were in my shoes, armed with the information you’ve gained at your Rank?” Jay asked.
Her brow furrowed. “That’s cheating.”
“Hey, if you get to take a question away, I get to ask a really good one back.”
She smiled, almost out of respect. “Okay, but this will actually hurt us both tonight, I think.”
“I’m game if you are.”
“You’re in Primal Age, where the stakes are lowest, but Natura will rise no matter what you do, and from the way I hear it, you can’t have many nights left before exhaustion finishes you off. That about right?”
He nodded.
“Then why are you wasting time here?” Naomi asked. “You should be collecting as many cores as humanly possible to balance out the rest of your gear.”
“Easy for you to say… I haven’t gotten to research yet, and those level 5 cores might as well do nothing for me. I need at least 11+ to make a difference, and those take forever to find.”
“Not if you go to somewhere concentrated.” She nudged over her shoulder, where a plume of black essence rose into the sky.
Jay paled as he caught the implication. “Didn’t you say it was stupid to raid a cairn at my level?”
“It is, but that was before you got a hold of a T-4 core… That level of infusion can’t be underestimated, and it might be the only chance you’ve got, though I’d definitely stay away from the Guardian if you’re facing any challenge at all. They tend to be a whole tier above everything else, if not more.”
Buzz.
Jay considered the new information. Yes, that would be the best way to spend his day.
“That’s four questions,” Naomi said. “What else you got?”
“How does an Expat core work? Give me all the specifics.”
She tilted her head. “Why does that matter if you don’t have one?”
“Because this world has video game mechanics, and I can infer what I’m missing based on understanding how it works.”
She sighed. “Fine. As I said before, your Expat core functions like a character class. With each Age unlock, you can “tune” it several times, spread across Main Crafts, Weapon, Armor Crafts, or Sub-Crafts when you’ve unlocked those. This allows you to expend less resources and time when upscaling or researching anything associated with those Crafts at the cost of everything else. Only General research remains unaffected.
“For example, I put mine into Bows and Light Armor during Primal Age, and eventually tuned it to Muskets when I hit Iron because I was a cop back on Earth, and firearms are where I’m most comfortable. That let me unlock better guns faster, produce ammo for fewer mats, and upscale metals into higher tiers for cheaper. I can’t invest effort into say, Swords or Axes though anymore. It has become too expensive to be worth the time or mats spent, even if I were to try to re-tune it.
“But it didn’t need to be this way. That could have been put into anything else. Spears, Shields, Tools, Base building. Hell, you could specialize into Cooking if you wanted to. Like any of those RPG games, you pick a lane, stick with it, and then adjust into subclasses as needed.”
Buzz.
“So you’re saying that it would be easier to strengthen my weapons if I had a class of my own?” Jay asked. His heart sank with that recognition. “That means I’d forever be handicapped.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Or maybe not. I’ve been thinking about this since I first met you. You’d never be able to keep up with someone like me if you wanted to do nothing but shoot guns, but could you get halfway decent with a gun and sword at once? Could you use alchemy to enhance yourself further? Why not? You might not be able to level as fast, but you’d always have access to the entire Expat arsenal while most of us end up stuck in our lanes. I really don’t know how that could play out.”
Jay supposed there was some truth to that. He’d been bumbling around and getting his ass kicked, night after night, and had assumed that was just how Annwyn worked. But again, more pieces were coming into place. Without that tutorial, Jay had been deprived of a valuable asset that would have made the process more seamless. Really can’t get a win, can I?
“That’s five questions,” Naomi said. “Unless you want something else from me, the leviathan is blocking the ocean again, and I’ve got a lot of grinding to get done today. We good?”
“Yeah, we’re good,” Jay decided. “I don’t forgive you for what you did, but your debt’s been repaid.”
That seemed to strike deep. Her eyes watered. “Please don’t let what happened define your experience here. You don’t have to forgive me for what I did, but don’t give up on people altogether. We’re the only thing keeping each other human.”
He chewed his lips. Yeah, Naomi might’ve spoken like it was all sunshine and rainbows, but Jay had seen enough back on Earth to know it didn’t work like that. He’d always been a loner for a reason, and hated getting roped into the affairs of others. Even if there was no Rule 5 to break, he’d have chosen to spend his days in the woods alone.
People only ever made things harder.
“Thanks for the advice,” he said before walking off, not bothering to hide the sarcasm. This day was going to be a long one.
She scoffed behind. “Fine, Jay. Keep playing the solo game then, and don’t let the rest of us get in the way.”
As Jay marched away, another thought came to mind. A possible solution to all his problems… One darker than he’d ever had before, and though he did not know if it could work, a part of him cried out to consider it, all the same.
If monster cores could be harvested from their owners, could the same occur with other Expats?
Name: Jay Reis (Primal Age)
Vitality – 39/39
Hunger – 35/72
Thirst – 13/24 (Sweltering)
Fatigue – 5/8 (Poorly Rested+4)
Sanity – 84/100
Main Crafts: Armor Crafting 1, Base Building 1, Cooking 0, Medicine 0, Tailoring 1, Tool Crafting 1, Weapon Crafting 2.
Weapon Crafts: Axes 0, Bows 3, Spears 5.
Armor Crafts: Heavy Armor 2, Light Armor 2, Medium Armor 0, Shields 2.
Armor Skills:
Heavy Armor: [Push]
Light Armor: [Dash]
Shield: [Brace]
Weapon Skills:
Bows: [Sharpshooter]
Spears: [Thrust], [Sweep]
Armor:
[Lizardscale Helmet] (Hardened+1)
[Lizardscale Chestpiece] (Hardened+1)
[Lizardscale Leggings] (Hardened+1)
[Lizardscale Boots] (Hardened+1)
[Lizardscale Gauntlets] (Hardened+1)
Weapons:
[Flint Spear+4]
[Flint Spear+2]
[Bone Dart Pouch+1]: Contains 15 [Bone Darts] (Poisoned)
[Wooden Bow+2]
[Crude Quiver]: Contains 20 [Flinthead Arrows]
Tools:
[Flint Knife]
[Stone Axe]
[Stone Hammer]