[Treated Bow] = Wood (Palm+2, 1-1.3m) + Resin (Any, 0.4-0.6L) + Twine (Hemp+2, 0.9-1.1m) + 2 Bone (level 16+, 0.05-0.07kg) + [Knife] (Copper) + [Workbench] (Any)
----------------------------------------
It was time to turn this around.
Jay marched through the jungle, his new curved sword and treated bow at hand. No longer did he feel threatened anywhere near his base. The monsters there were too weak to put up a fight anymore.
Not that many were left.
Even after all the hard work Jay had put in, less than a day remained until Viktor would kill the first person, and the tally was still little more than halfway full, with most of the remaining ingredients as high end fruit and meat found only on the inner island. Despite the time and pressure, most folks seemed to have given up, instead collecting everything they could as soon as it appeared.
And the more this happened, the more Jay realized that this was the point. They were never supposed to win.
Only to accept their defeat.
Jay pierced through the underbrush, his sight inhuman with the power of his perception-boosting tea. He’d been trolling around this part of the island for hours, hoping beyond hope that he’d find his target.
There he is. Though perhaps impossible to identify as a regular human, Jay could still make out the intricacies left by an Expatriate if he hunted far enough, along with the subtle traps, tripwires, and spike pits that were inconspicuously built beneath the nearby reeds, lest someone try to sneak up unaware.
This particular base lay nestled against a cliff, with hardwood walls camouflaged under a veil of shrubbery, and tiny slits large enough for arrows to come through.
Thankfully, his target calmly collected wood outside, oblivious to him slowly sneaking up. Jay got within range before making his presence known.
“Hey!” he called out.
The other man had his curved sword out in half a heartbeat, head lurched to attention and body prepared for defense. The sun glittered off the silver of his gear.
“What do you want!?” Hyuk shouted back, gripping his blade tight.
“I came to offer my apologies.”
Hyuk said nothing, waiting in defense.
“Come on,” Jay continued. “If I wanted to hurt you, I would’ve done it from over here.”
Still, the other man said nothing, his eyes slowly sizing out the rest of the terrain.
Jay grit his teeth. “Can we just talk for a little bit!? Or do you want me to shout everything from up here?”
Only then did Hyuk relent. He lowered his weapon and went back to work, though not without ever taking his eyes away.
Jay hopped through the last stretch of underbrush and found a spot nearby, neither too close nor too far. Hyuk hacked into a downed palm tree, his well-defined muscles sleek with sweat.
“Say whatever you want,” he said.
“I just want to apologize…” Jay started.
“Yes, you said that before. What else?”
He grimaced. It shouldn’t be a surprise that things were so tense after the two had almost murdered each other, but he really was trying his best.
“What we’re all doing right now isn’t helping anyone,” Jay explained. “We had a golden chance to make this work together, but Viktor used that against us instead.”
Hyuk whacked more wood free. “And?”
“And that’s our problem. Whether we give Viktor what he wants or not doesn’t matter. The point isn’t that we put a bunch of food onto a bear.
“Divide and conquer. That is Viktor’s strategy in this world, and just by roughing up a few people and coming up with some bullshit, he’s had us beaten ever since.”
Jay took a step forth. “But it doesn’t have to be that way, Hyuk. Before the two of us went at it, I threw out the chance that we do the selfless thing and hunt. You knew it would work. I know you did.”
“Did you forget what came after?”
“Yes, and you attacked me first…” He shook his head. “But that’s beside the point. If we hadn’t jumped into that fight, he might have killed us both for what we’d come up with. No one can beat him alone, but people like you and me can think of something if we work together.”
A small, slimy smirk grew across one corner of his otherwise youthful face. “Why would I not go to Viktor and warn him of your plan?”
“Because you don’t want to play his game either.” He stared deep, hoping that his instincts were right. “You didn’t attack me to bend to Viktor’s whims. You did it to initiate the fight on even footing. Had you wanted to murder me outright, you would’ve used your Sub-Craft mutation for [Slash] on the opening swing. But instead, that slash was unskilled, giving me the chance to evade.
“Therefore, since you didn’t want to kill me unfairly, you must recognize this injustice for what it is. And you know what? I’m right there with you. Just because there are no laws, doesn’t mean we should bend to the whims of the closest jackass with power. We’re supposed to be rise above adversity here, not submit to it.”
For a moment, Hyuk said nothing, his dark eyes locked with his. Jay might have known nothing else about the man than their short fight, but he suspected they were cut from the same cloth.
Not everyone was a monster just because the Wyrms thought they were.
Hyuk lowered his axe with a sigh. “You are correct. I had no desire to kill you, but I did not know your plans, so I sought to incapacitate you before you could attempt to kill me.” He bowed his head. “Thank you for sparing my life. I am in your debt.”
Jay smiled. “Don’t worry about it.”
“But I must. It is who I am.” He turned around and raised the back of his silver-plated coat.
Jay gaped without words. Despite his young, smooth features, a giant tattoo in the shape of a dragon snaked across his back, spewing red fire from a body made of turquoise. Hyuk’s muscles flexed a beat, and the dragon’s eyes narrowed further, that same determination as its owner.
“What’s that mean?” Jay asked.
“It means that I am Kkangpae,” he explained. “I belonged to an organization that fought as a family and bowed to no authority.”
“You mean like a club?”
“No. More like a gang. Our rules were our own.”
Jay watched on, unsure what else to say. He didn’t expect Hyuk to be a gangster.
He smiled, catching the cue. “Do you think every criminal fights without honor?”
“No, it’s not that. I’m just surprised because of how you look.”
Hyuk chuckled. “Not everything is as you see, or what you think it would be. Gangs come in many different shapes and sizes where I come from. Some prey on the weak, while others are there to defend them.
“That is what drew me to Kkangpae. When I was a boy, I grew up in a house made of corrugated metal sheets stacked against cinder blocks, and a toilet made from rubber that flowed into the stream where we bathed. Only my father could work, splitting no more than a pound of rice a week between my four brothers and sisters. It was nice and we were happy to be alive.
“But when I grew old enough to leave that slum, I learned to despise the world my family had been denied. It was a different world than I’d ever seen before, where the rich fed off the suffering of those beneath, never caring for where their money came from. I worked for these gluttonous pigs long enough to see the injustice they created.
“So I became Kkangpae instead of playing their game. If they were to cheat us of the dignity we deserved, then I would take it back. I left my family and joined another, one that shared my values.”
He stared deep. “That is why I will remain in your debt, Jay. You understand this same dishonor as me.”
It was true. Jay had never considered himself any kind of honorable fighter. Hell, he’d been using nothing but cheap tricks to keep his head afloat against Annwyn’s threats. Who cared about ethics in a war against monsters?
But how Viktor conducted himself was different. This wasn’t amoral decision making, but needless malice against his fellow man. No one deserved to be treated like this.
And just when Jay thought he’d been alone in feeling this way, the very person who he’d fought to the death a few days back was the most on his side.
He shook Hyuk’s hand with a grin. “Let’s find a way through this together.”
There was hope for their island yet.
* * *
The walk back home proved nice and pleasant, and Jay moved with a bounce to his step. Voidstorms formed to the east and west, conjuring hail and lightning before shattering into the jungles beneath. But even as the world became perverted under these chaotic storms, nothing disrupted the path in front.
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He reached his plateau home next to the serene lake, with a roaring waterfall beside. Despite the dangers of the world beyond, Jay had still crafted this pocket of protection for himself.
The cave beneath the waterfall stood ready, with his tools and gear nearby. Jay filled his minecart with wooden planks, stone beams, and bones.
The day was still young, and he had other wounds to mend.
Lush, aromatic winds gave way to the still humidity of the cavern system as Jay marched down the stone corridors. His minecart squeaked against their basic tracks, and the walls flickered against the light of his stone torch. He peered into the darkness, a vial of night owl strapped to his waist, should he need to enter a fight.
Not that he would.
He and Kevin had spent the better part of a week working together to clear this cave system out. Sometimes, by using the power of a Synbug, but mostly, by filling the void the other left behind to hunt while the other recovered. It might not have been as effective as the refined strategy that the E-Rank group used before Viktor, but it served their interests all the same.
Just two guys doing what they can to help each other out without incurring Natura’s wrath.
And the result had slowly but surely culminated into breaking through their next wall, for though each had managed to make powerful Copper Age weapons on their own, they’d forever be limited without progressing into pure iron gear. From what Jay could gather, that was the power spike in which F-Rank Expats could handle E-Rank threats, provided they also absorbed a leviathan core for the proper Rank up.
…And that would be so much easier with Iron Age tech.
He reached the fork in the road, where one path split off back home while the other went to Kevin’s base. Meanwhile, the track took a sharp downward slant, boring deeper into the earth where his coveted prize remained.
Back when Jay used his [Forbidden Knowledge] to gain the cursed Bag ‘a Mats, he’d been able to store thousands of kilograms of raw materials within, and never needed to concern himself with the logistics of transporting back and forth. But after sacrificing that prize to defeat the D-Rank leviathan and save this island, he realized just how difficult everyone else had it.
Oh, sure, anyone could plop a research table near an ore vein, which was how Jay had first started, but what happened once the research became more demanding? How did one adapt when the veins were so far and few between?
They built tracks. And with Jay and Kevin sharing one, all the way down to the pit of the earth, both could work half as hard for the same gain. It wasn’t an explicit trade, and that’s what made it work so well.
A silent but united goal, guided by mutual self-interest above all else.
Just a little further…
The two had toiled all this time to reach this point. A vein of pure iron ore that could be smelted directly into iron bars sat here, and it stretched further than either knew what to do with. The only other time Jay had found this ore type was deep in the Evershadow, a pitiful cache compared to what they’d unearthed. He’d been hoarding it ever since, ready for what came next.
The bloomery.
Naomi, Ben, Desmond, and Sayid all had one because of the utility it brought. It was the next evolution in Annwyn’s progression, a means to smelt pure iron from any vein or ore. But the research required iron blocks to fulfill, a task that forced Expats to delve deep into the Earth just to clear this hurdle.
The rewards would be worth it for them both, however. Once he and Kevin had a bloomery of their own, all those regular veins along the way could be processed right into Iron Age research.
An undeniable boon for them both.
That was why Jay had to do this part by himself. It was true, he’d been neglecting Kevin and his own survival crisis, violating their unspoken rule to help when the other stumbled.
But there was still a chance to make things right. As much as Jay felt otherwise, there was no denying the unfettered advantage he’d given himself against their current crisis by making his super-leveled pemmican. While everyone else suffered from a diet loss by surrendering food to Viktor, he could get by on lifeberries and level 1 squirrels alone.
It was time for Jay to step up again. Not just for himself, but for others as well.
Hmm, that’s strange. Jay reached the spot where he’d last left off, but the track continued to go on, disappearing into the vacuous dark in front. Had he misjudged the distance?
His heart skipped a beat, and Jay popped his vial of night owl to confirm his worst fears. His eyes widened as they took in the contours of this part of the cave system, and he recognized what Kevin had done at once.
The pure iron vein had been mined.
The entire vein.
It couldn’t be… They’d spent so much time doing this together… With the goal of splitting the rewards… Kevin wouldn’t take everything for himself. Would he!?
The giant black hole where the vein had once been stared back, almost mockingly.
And Jay turned around and marched the way he’d come, gripping his sword tight, his blood boiling. He couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe that his friend could do something like this. Not after how far they’d gone together.
Another voidstorm pelted the ground as he reached Kevin’s base. Nestled on the opposing edge of Jay’s mountain, his base held a stark view of the inner island, along with all the dangers and beauties there.
But when cast under the effects of night owl, Jay saw a world drawn in black and white, with no morality left.
His eyes fell to Kevin heaping more of the stolen ore into furnaces. He didn’t even have the decency to show the slightest bit of surprise or shame as Jay stared on, instead continuing as if he weren’t there.
“How could you!?” Jay called out.
Kevin scoffed. “How could I what? Play the game?”
“That isn’t fair! We got to that ore together.”
“Yeah? Well, the way I see it, if everyone is in it for themselves, then I might as well be too.”
“So, all that hard work I put in doesn’t matter anymore?”
“Yes, Jay. That’s how it works here, isn’t it?” He turned his head. “I learned that well enough from you.”
He curled his palms into fists. “How could you say that? We cleared that mine together, fought monsters together, found that ore together. We did this all together!”
“And then you walked away!” Keith slammed his fist through a pile of ore, shattering it into dust. He turned back, cheeks bright red. “Just like you did before, Jay.”
“What are you talking about? You’re the one who left the city, remember?”
“Is that how you remember it? Really? After all this time and everything we did together?”
He grit his teeth. “I didn’t come here to talk about Earth, Kevin. None of that stuff matters anymore.”
He scoffed. “You’re right, that doesn’t matter. None of it matters. That’s the fucking point! I told you how rough things were for me… You knew how hard I had it… But what did you do? Ran off to do your own thing, like always.”
Jay grunted. “What do you want from me? To break Rule 5 a bunch just because you had a bad day. I thought you were supposed to be the tough guy.”
“How about just asking how I’m doing for a change.”
“You wanted me to walk all the way over here just to talk!?” He couldn’t believe this shit!
But the veins bulged from Kevin’s forehead. “See, Jay? That’s your fucking problem. Everything is always framed in the coldest, most logical terms, never once considering the humanity behind it all. Face it… You don’t know how to be a fucking person. That’s why nobody ever wanted to be your friend, and that’s why I had to check out too. You’re blind to decency.
“You ever wonder why you got the Grand Bargain? Because I figured it out right away. The Wyrms picked you because you’re a self-centered sociopath who can’t see the world outside his own asshole.”
“That’s not true…” Jay hissed, his own rage boiling. “You’re just using this as an excuse to take what’s mine!”
“Oh, please! You know I’m right, even if you don’t want to admit it.” Kevin gripped his spear tight. “So I guess we’ve got a choice here, huh? We can either go our separate ways, or fight this one ou–”
Kevin suddenly recoiled with a gasp, an arrow materializing from his chest.
Jay stumbled a second later. He stared down, where a shaft jutted from his shoulder.
Then he looked back up as more arrows came…
Vitality – ??/99
Hunger – 62/72
Thirst – 18/24
Fatigue – 39/48
Sanity – 78/100
Main Crafts: Alchemy 2, Armor Crafting 2, Base Building 3, Cooking 2, Jewelry 2, Medicine 2, Tailoring 2, Tool Crafting 3, Vehicles 1, Weapon Crafting 2.
Weapon Crafts: Axes 5, Bows 6, Clubs 5, Daggers 5, Spears 5, Swords 9.
Armor Crafts: Heavy Armor 5, Light Armor 5, Medium Armor 8, Shields 6.
Sub-Crafts: Curved Swords 3.
Character Skills:
[Forbidden Knowledge]
Armor Skills:
Heavy Armor: [Push], [Stampede]
Medium Armor: [Recover], [Leap], [Waterform], [Quickstep]
Light Armor: [Dash], [Feather Fall]
Shield: [Brace], [Track], [Break]
Weapon Skills:
Axes: [Chop], [Whirlwind]
Bows: [Sharpshooter], [Longshot], [Scattershot Arrow]
Clubs: [Bash], [Paralyze]
Daggers: [Slice], [Flourish]
Spears: [Thrust], [Sweep]
Swords: [Power Attack], [Slash], [Rend], [Shirk]
Armor:
[Pig Ironplated Hat] (Affinity+2), (Hardened+4), (Reinforced+1)
[Pig Ironplated Coat] (Affinity+2), (Hardened+4), (Reinforced+1)
[Pig Ironplated Leggings] (Affinity+2), (Hardened+4), (Reinforced+1)
[Pig Ironplated Shoes] (Affinity+2), (Hardened+4), (Reinforced+1)
[Pig Ironplated Gloves] (Affinity+2), (Hardened+4), (Reinforced+1)
[Silver Amulet]: Socketed with [Chipped Tourmaline] (Tempus)
[Silver Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Ruby] (Ignis)
[Silver Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Ruby] (Ignis)
Weapons:
[Pig Iron Scimitar+3] (Affinity+5), (Hardened+1), (Reinforced+2), (Stable+4)
[Treated Bow]: Socketed with [Chipped Ruby] (Ignis)
[Basic Leather Quiver]: Contains 17 [Silver-tipped Arrows] (Elemental+2), (Stability+4) and 3 [Scattershot Arrows] (Elemental+2), (Stability+4)
Tools:
[Copper Knife+3]
[Copper Axe+3]
[Copper Hammer+3]
[Copper Pickaxe+3]
[Copper Shovel+3]
Boons:
[Minor (Speed)] (x3)