[Stone Axe] = Wood (Any, 0.35-0.55m) + Stone (Any, 2-3kg) + Twine (Any, 0.3-0.4m) + [Knife] (Flint) + [Workbench] (Any)
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Jay breathed easy, his life spared.
Now that the truck that almost hit him had turned the corner, he had nothing more to fear.
He picked up his webcam and kept walking. Once he returned home, he’d plug it in, boot up another stream, and watch as the viewers trickled back. Now that he had this top-notch webcam, it would all come together.
Yep. That was all Jay needed to fix his life.
The ground shook.
It was a small vibration at first. Jay froze, feeling the shifting weight beneath his feet. He wasn’t alone. Everyone else on the street nearby had stopped what they were doing, looking at the ground with the same shared shock.
The force exploded. Buildings swayed. Windows rattled. Food tumbled off the shelf of a nearby food truck. The normal echo of alarms burst into an uncontrollable song as a thousand cars had their security triggered at once. Cracks started forming on the pavement, and people began to run and scream.
Jay gawked. An earthquake? Now? Here!?
The sudden shock grew in strength as the world imploded. Cars collided with each other. Wires snapped from utility poles as they tumbled into the street. Glass rained from the sky, concrete and windows shattering alike.
It was chaos. True, unfettered pandemonium. How could this be happening?
Another concussion went off. He turned his head and looked straight up.
A fissure had formed along the closest building’s roof. As the earthquake rocked its concrete foundation, the top floors dislodged from the bottom, crunching against the mix of whitestone bricks and marble pillars that defined its length before sliding against the crack. The building tilted first, crystalline windows shattering. Another rumble, and the upper level dislodged altogether, tumbling into the middle of the street below.
Right where Jay was standing.
He stared blankly against his coming demise. There was nothing else to do. No time to move. Barely enough to think.
Then the building hit the ground, and everything went black…
* * *
Whack. Whack. Whack. Wh–
Snap.
Jay sighed as the crude axe crumbled to dust. The tree’s trunk remained only half-cut. Looks like it’s time to start again.
After returning to the beach where he’d started, Jay went back to progressing through the Crafting tree. His health had returned to full after the treated Wounds cleared out, and the poison had disappeared from his system. Only the parasite Affliction remained, but he had plenty of lifeberries on hand to counteract the extra hunger.
The storm continued to rage offshore, neither growing nor waning in strength. Its violent waves disappeared before hitting the shoreline, their boundary still as defined as ever.
Even more mind-boggling, but the sun itself still shone bright, even as it passed beyond the hurricane’s threshold. It wasn’t as if it pierced through the clouds either. No, the clouds merely vanished the second the sun passed through them, as if they were an illusion altogether.
More memories melded together as he studied this chaotic scene. Screams… Sirens… Concrete shattering against a concussive force… Did he get crushed?
Yes. It was becoming so much clearer now. Jay had been trapped under a falling building, only to be brought to the hospital right after. Things became blurry from there, but he’d definitely received medical attention.
That confirms this is a hallucination. If Jay had suffered a terrible accident, then there was no telling what trauma his body went through, or what kind of drugs they’d give him while he recovered.
He breathed easily, once again secure in knowing Annwyn could not be real.
Not that he’d ever felt different. Being stuck in a video game world was absurd enough on its own.
Oh well, better keep rolling with it. Jay weaved vines against stone, crafting another crude axe.
This made for one of his better finds. Vines worked like reeds when used as a source of twine and were thicker and easier to handle.
He gripped his new tool tight, ready to push forth.
Whack. Whack. Whack.
With each strike against the trunk, the palm tree shuddered. Sweat continued to build, but Jay dared not wipe it away with more than his hand. After cutting so much cloth to reinforce his tools, his T-shirt had turned into a belly shirt. With the way Annwyn operated, he suspected he could only take another couple of meters worth of strips before it no longer counted as clothing. Then, he would be subjected to the elements and whatever Conditions it threw at him.
Whack. Whack. Whack.
The stone head grated against the softened palm wood, and the trunk began to hiss. Another second, the whole tree snapped free, tumbling into the beach with a slam.
He stared at the felled tree and tilted his head.
Now what? He’d gotten access to a mountain of wood, but it was in the wrong shape and size to build any crafting station he’d need to move up in this world. How was he supposed to size them down correctly?
The hilt of his crude axe chafed against his skin, and he knew the answer.
Whack. Whack. Whack. Wh–
Snap.
He grimaced.
This was going to take a while.
One hit after the next, one minute bleeding into another, Jay worked to wear the log down. His arms grew heavy, his lungs struggled to get air before long, and his axes shattered like nobody’s business, but in the end, he was able to break apart chunks of wooden logs down to the right size. Or, rather, he really, really hoped that he had.
The blocks of wood and twine lay out in front, and his mind sprung into action. He gripped his newest flint knife and went to work. First, the four legs were planted into the sand to work as a foundation, he then lassoed vines along three blocks in the midsection for stability, and finally, an additional four were placed on top. This phase burned vines like nobody’s business to tie the monstrosity together, but in the end, he was finished, with a full wooden table in front to serve as a workbench.
Buzz.
Congratulations! You have created a [Basic Workbench]. Enhance the physical attributes of your weapons and armor here by infusing them with monster cores. Higher-strength monster cores will raise your crafting level and grant you new Skills.
Intriguing. But where would he get access to a monster core? Should he have cut up that dead vined coyote? He poked deeper into the Lexicon for answers. One entry popped from the Fauna page after his encounter earlier in the day.
Black Boar (level 3) – A black-furred monster that patrols most tropical forests, using its powerful tusks to deliver devastating attacks.
Contains a monster core.
Research still available.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Aside from the bit about “research” that he still didn’t understand, there was no denying the direction to take. Jay had only encountered a vined coyote before this, and its entry stated nothing about monster cores. Therefore, he would have to find a way to defeat this black boar to gain access to higher levels and skills…
Along with whatever power that would give him.
But maybe this wasn’t a total waste of time. Jay scavenged together some more sticks, stones, and vines, threw them atop his workbench, and started going to work.
…And his hands moved with a speed they’d never possessed before, fashioning together another crude axe in a fraction of the time. He gaped in awe as his own body worked, supplemented by a more efficient pace from the workbench that bordered magical. Within moments of starting, the crude axe was complete.
Time to bring this up a notch. He looked at the ravaged remains of the felled palm tree and considered how much more he could get out of it. Again, he marched forth with his crude axe and started swinging.
After enough time, he returned to his workbench, now armed with several more blocks of wood, a giant rock, and a bundle of reeds at the ready. He gripped a crude knife and laid out the materials.
This construction took a few extra steps. The larger stone had to first be sharpened with the knife and the wood shaved down the middle. Combined with the speed at which he could weave together reeds now, what should have taken more than half an hour had been crafted in less than ten minutes. Jay gripped his new upgraded stone axe with exhilaration.
Buzz.
Level Up! Tool Crafting 0 → 1.
Tool repairs now available.
Axes unlocked.
Just like that, tiny letters suddenly materialized beneath the completed stone axe, black paint forming right on the workbench itself.
Durability – Full.
Repairs needed: None
He swapped the untouched stone axe with his most recent crude axe.
Durability – Low.
Repairs needed: Twine (Any, 0.2-0.25m)
Without thinking it further, he grabbed some more reeds and quickly fashioned them around the head of his crude axe. The durability adjusted to max in real-time.
This was brilliant! No longer would Jay have to double back and build a new axe every few minutes. There was no telling just how fast he could bulldoze through these trees with this new boon.
He even thrust his new stone axe into a nearby palm as a test. It shattered through the outer layer of bark, driving deeper than his crude axes had been able to accomplish by a factor of three. He swung again, cleaving through with the same strength.
This day just got a whole lot easier.
* * *
A cool, gentle breeze rolled over the quiet lull of early evening waves, and Jay Reis felled another palm. This log shattered against a boulder upon collision, saving him more effort as it split a second time on its own. He’d have to remember to set that up on purpose next time. So much more could get done!
With the tree downed, he went through the meticulous work of breaking it into small pieces, approximately three meters in height, then bisected them longways into halves. He needed five blocks total for every wall panel of one-meter length. The final step of crafting involved tying these blocks together with a massive amount of twine, but even though he consumed armfuls of reeds at a time, they could be weaved with the wood in no time, thanks to the power of his workbench.
Jay dragged the completed three-by-one meter panel of woven logs and raised it up, now forming a palisade wall when combined with the others. By his estimation, he was a third of the way to his envisioned project’s completion. The workbench would be surrounded by a wooden wall, with plenty of room to accommodate more benches when he had the need.
He smiled. I’m getting more efficient. At the pace he was moving, he’d complete this base with time to spare. Regardless of real-world physics, this imaginary game let him cobble together vast constructions with a fraction of effort. What should have taken days could be completed in hours, yet the sun still appeared to move at the rate it would normally.
There were some downsides. Jay realized that as soon as he picked an item off the ground, he couldn’t just toss it back there. After maybe four or five hours, whatever he placed would despawn. Even the dead coyote from the night before disappeared, though that took many more hours.
He’d discovered this phenomenon after losing his early morning stash of stone and sticks, and the only way out of it was to place them inside a storage container. This wasn’t the worst tax. “Crude” chests and shelves could be thrown together in minutes with the help of his workbench.
Jay studied his progress. Because of the sheer versatility in recipes, he could make some wall panels with built-in gaps, large enough to fit through the head of a spear and not much else, while others served as full walls. Supplemented by new spike traps poking out from the foundations made with sharpened sticks, his little beach was turning into quite the impenetrable fortress. That coyote won’t know what hit it.
Jay checked his Stats and frowned.
Name: Jay Reis (Primal Age)
Vitality – 20/20
Hunger – 48/72 (Parasite)
Thirst – 22/24
Fatigue – 32/48
Sanity – 66/100
Though his vitality had returned to full and his thirst remained in a solid place, his hunger kept dropping like a rock, as if the act of being on this beach was bringing it down on its own. No doubt his parasite wasn’t helping.
The real wrinkle came from his “Sanity” though. It had dripped down another five points over the course of the day. Oh, sure, he could reverse the hunger with a handful of berries, but nothing seemed to change this metric.
It didn’t make sense. Jay was a lifelong gamer. He knew how to play these types of mechanics when they were presented to him. His hunger, thirst, and fatigue were tied to his physical state, and he could fix them each with food, water, and sleep.
But what was the deal with this last one? There was no coding logic or way to know where it sat other than checking the Guide. It was bullshit! How was he supposed to deal with a number that ticked down without explanation?
Jay rubbed his eyes. It didn’t matter. The other four affected his body, but his “Sanity” was clearly a meaningless metric they’d thrown in without thought. So long as he paid attention to the others, he’d be perfectly fine.
At least until he woke up from this dream. Then everything would be good… No, great! Because then he’d have won the game. That imaginary video game he’d made up to recover from a coma. Winning was such a great feeling, and he’d get there soon enough!
He munched the last of his lifeberries and watched his hunger tick up, even as he lost another point of sanity for no reason whatsoever.
Looks like it’s time for another food run. Plus, he needed more flint if he planned on crafting better weapons.
* * *
Level Up! Armor Crafting 0 → 1
Armor can now be repaired.
Heavy Armor unlocked.
Shields unlocked.
New recipes available.
Level Up! Weapon Crafting 0 → 1
Weapons can now be repaired.
Level Up! Spears 0 → 1
Crafted spear damage increased.
Level Up! Bows 0 → 1.
Draw speed for crafted bows increased.
Jay studied his gear with exhilaration. So many new things in such a short time!
His palm bark chestplate and helmet might have been fashioned together with blades of grass and padded with leaves, but he’d no doubt be able to stop the wooden teeth of some dinky coyote made of plants. A tree against thorns. He’d win, easy!
The flint spear had been reinforced again with more cloth too. He’d tested a thrust into the ground, and it packed a significantly more potent punch than the shitty crude version. Another power spike!
The newly crafted wooden bow would also be a game-changer against the basic crude version. With his base now complete, he’d be able to take shots without ever having to put himself at risk. Hell, this fight would be over before it began!
His base could not have been stronger too. He’d managed to circumscribe the entire area with wooden walls, shaped like an octagon to maximize space inside. Only a single door had been crafted ocean-side, and he could lock it down with extra wooden beams. Spikes jutted along the whole ring, ready to eviscerate anything that drew near. An entire stockpile of arrows, sticks, and stones laid about near the workbench in the middle, should he need to craft more gear on the fly, though he was careful to place them in chests lest the despawn mechanic kicked in. A roof was also supposed to cover the top, but he hadn’t thought it through at the start. Even if he managed to make wooden beams large enough to cross through the middle, he had no way to lift them up so high.
Not that it mattered. The coyote monster was smaller than him. No way it’d be able to get up there!
So it was that the stage was set, and the battle would soon begin. He even thought up a name for this ultimate stronghold. “Fort Knox.” Behind these unbreakable walls, he’d crush his enemy before it ever got close.
Then the game would be won, and he’d wake back up. That was obviously how this would all work.
The sun began to dip below the horizon, and Jay clenched his weapons tight.
His mouth salivated for the fight to soon come.