Finally he woke up. Vaguely recalling passing out after the claws ripped into his sides, he was now in a darkness waiting to respawn. He felt extremely groggy, the pain still seemed to dig into him. In fact he felt like he was even cold, like a dead body. The stickiness of his blood seemed to pull at his skin. He could almost feel the pressure of the cat above him even now… Wait, that’s weird. He tried moving around unconsciously and felt a stinging pain over most of his body including his forehead.
Opening his eyes he saw something that terrified him. Staring down the throat of the sabretooth, his dagger stared him in the face. The bronze edge now coated in a rusty red blood. The tip pressed against his forehead he finally came around to his senses, he was alive somehow, the tiger was dead, and now he was staring down his own blade trapped under at least a few hundred pounds of beast.
The blinking boxes in the corner of his vision finally came into focus as he glanced over at them. This is what they read.
~(Critical hit-230 Deadly)~
(Congratulations, you are the first person to kill a Forest Sabretooth Tiger at level 1. Bonus to experience x2, new title “Wild Man”: +10% damage to wild animals, +10% critical chance against wild animals. Warning, this title will automatically be equipped to your name bar. To change title you may visit a shaman.)
That was interesting but how did he actually survive that attack? Not to mention shouldn’t he have bled out during the time he was out? Reading through the next messages he was surprised to find his body was actually mostly saved by the tiger. The claws almost did him in bringing him down to 10 Health, but since they didn’t pull out, he was saved from their bleed. His chest was covered by the tiger and the soft green underbelly actually stopped the bleeding after before he could completely bleed out.
This alone would have been enough to surprise him, but the most surprising bit was when the he read the last couple of messages.
(Level up x5,)
(Level 6: 570/600 exp.)
(Blood of Forest Sabretooth absorbed in battle)
(Blood accepted by body)
(Blood restored 100/100 HP)
(Blood fusion with Forest Sabretooth tiger Successful, would you like to accept mutation?)
(Yes or No)
I was kind of at a loss what to do, I mean the forums and magazines never really said much about the content of the games beyond the main themes. This was a complete new thing he hadn’t even heard of before. Should he do it though? What if he couldn’t do some of the stuff he could’ve before, or what if…? What if it could help him?
Considering he had some stat points, he could now become stronger. But he was still stuck in but fuck nowhere underneath a giant cat… He sat for over an hour staring at his own dagger before he pressed yes. Maybe it could help him from starving trapped here.
Immediately then his vision went white with pain, his whole body stung including his insides. Then his bones seemed to grind against each other as they shifted around slowly, as if they weren’t sure where to go. Suddenly they moved rapidly as he felt his body shuffling around under the big-cat. In the end the pain became too great and he passed out again.
…
..
.
Finally, his head buzzing he came around after the process was over and the pin subsided. At this point he wasn’t sure how long he was stuck under the cat, but he was sure it must be close to morning the following day of arriving in the world of Crysolis.
Derrek moaned as he rolled over… wait rolled over? Opening his eyes he was met with a nice cloudy sky above him. He must of flailed around a lot when he passed out because he was a full ten feet from the Sabretooth. Looking around himself he was surprised to see the small area round the fight was practically painted in blood. Himself included he was coated in blood.
Finally the moment of horror could not be delayed any longer. He looked down at himself … He knew there were changes to his body, but still he was surprised at the scene. His hair was now a shimmering gold like the tigers was, fortunately he didn’t get too much green color. Besides his normal body hair his arms, legs, part chest and belly, legs, and neck had slightly more hair varying in amounts. His ears were slightly pointed and reminded him of the cats, though they were still human-looking. He supposed he could still be mistaken for a human if he didn’t strip down completely. His back had the most green, having a stripe down his spine, and along his should blades.
Compared to these changes though, they could be considered minor. His eyes were now a bright almost fluorescent green, his nails came to slight points (of which he could “summon” more almost half an inch of claw from his fingers), his whole body was laced with twice as much muscle as before making him look faster and more powerful. He checked his pants and even junior was marginally larger. He figured his height overall must be around 6 feet now and his hips and shoulders mere slightly pulled forward now, so he could move smoother.
His palms were even slightly padded now too, though they just seemed extremely calloused but still with a lot of feeling. His feet were a little smaller but wider. Where he would’ve worn tens before now he would fit a seven, and they were wider almost a full inch. The nails on his feet were also the same as his hands too.
His chest was slightly bowed outwards now too while keeping his width. This all combined, he could easily walk on all four now with surprising ease. The most astonishing change he thought though were the 3 ½ foot tail and his teeth. He could move the tail freely and his teeth were all sharper, except the molars. His canines were so long though, they struck the bottom of his gums. His jaw also seemed to open wider slightly allowing him to open his mouth properly.
As he observed himself in a pool close by he could only think one thing. How was he going to hid e his tail in public? Would he be ridiculed? He was almost sure there were no Sabre-Man races and the cat-like races were more cat-like. Somehow he knew the Sabretooth was more a ferocious looking creature with more strength. The cat-like races he remembered were called Fellen, and had much smaller frames and mostly had hair completely coving them. Their faces were also more cat-like, where he was pretty much the same beyond the eyes ears and teeth. Which he was sure they didn’t have the teeth a sabretooth. Surprisingly they weren’t that noticeable and he was pretty sure they would gain abilities and grow like he was a real person… thingy.
This is actually the prompt he got when he first woke up. Pulling it up again looked at it.
~(Forest Sabretooth Tiger blood has successfully altered body)~
~(With this new body your race has stayed human, since this is a mutation of your former self. Beware, others may take offence to your image. You have gained many accessory body enhancements that which will all grow and evolve. Your current sabretooth side is considered a simple kitten of what it can and will be. This is now your basic body, though other attributes in the future depending on season and conditions may be hidden from view.)~
~(Congratulations on discovering a new mutation, you are the first person to discover this. +500 EXP.)~
~(Level up x1)~
~(Level (7) 470/700)~
~(System reminder-You have 30skill points to spend, don’t forget to use them)~
So ya, basically he looked pretty badass, and he wasn’t sure how people would react or even if they’d notice much. Maybe he could play off being a Fellin? Well…I suppose I have to find some sort of civilization first.
With that he walked over to the dead big cat and tried moving it. Of course it barely moved when he nudged it. He was looking at its hide and meat especially, since his loaf of bread was thoroughly soaked in blood and dirt. Somehow the map in his back pocket stayed safe in its thin tube of wood. His dagger was jammed hard into the neck of the sabretooth, probably stuck in the bone. He had no choice actually, he would have to use some of his points for strength. Not wanting to unbalance myself though I distributed points to all of the categories the way he saw fit.
Status
Name: Derrek "Wild Man"
Level (7) 470/700
Current points: 0
Bonus points: 0
Strength: 15
Endurance: 15
Intelligence: 11
Toughness: 10
Luck: 5
Points available: 0
Level (7) 470/700
I tried pulling the blade from the throat again and with a grunt I put my foot to its side and wrenched it out with the sound of bone hissing across the blade. The blade was surprisingly ok, it had a deep gouge down the sides in the middle. Other than that though the cutting edge was still sharp.
Kneeling down next to the big cat, it was about eight feet long now that the body was sprawled out relaxed. Its bowels had already emptied themselves so he tried pushing the cat the last 30 yards to the edge of the field. I pulled it by its uncharacteristically long tail, and hind legs.
The going was slow, and he heard animals and birds every now and again scaring him. Finally they made it into the clearing and what he saw took his breath away. A mammoth herd was grazing across a moderately sized flat connecting to other flats through paths cutting through the tree lines. Countless birds and even some sort of larger Deer mingled across the plain. Above and to the sides there were massive hills and cliffs forming arches here and there. Greenery grew everywhere, obviously summer was in full swing right now.
The hills led up to random terraces above and below them about two layers being below him and countless above. The arches themselves were full of life and he could clearly see some sort of larger animals flying near the tops of the mountains. Waterfalls dotted here and there, and unknown sources fed a few large rivers he could see. Most importantly he could spot a couple of specks in the distance emitting smoke.
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These were of course villages he presumed of sorts. From what he knew of this game, Crysolis was a world developing from the stone-age by intelligent AI with some Moderators and Admins help. The worlds gods were still mostly tribal he though from his last magazine, but he figured the resources and life would be plentiful. Something that was almost nonexistent on earth anymore.
It had seemed like the world with the most attention, flexibility, and since it was his new world for his foreseeable future until he chose another world at some point it had seemed like the best choice. He could literally build his own world if he liked, or he could help others he agreed with. Which was practically the same.
Looking at the obviously sculpted works of art around him, he was glad of his choice, even if it had almost killed him. He would make a new start, and a new world for those who couldn’t make it here like him.
This reminded him, and what about the other Orphans he knew? Should he search them out? The world expanded more the more people logged onto the servers, so it would be arduous and hard to find them all. But maybe if he stayed somewhere long enough others he knew would hear about him and search him out?
For that to work, he had to first learn to support himself before he even tried to support anyone else. Pulling out his map and a small chunk of charcoal from the tube, he started mapping the area he knew and saw. Somehow the system took over and added some color here and there, and the view was of course from above. He assumed this is because it just mapped the amount of area he could see.
The areas he visited were more detailed though, so there were still advantages to adventuring around. Observing the Mammoths they seemed to have a few babies with them. They were ran around their elders playfully jumping making funny little ‘blet’ noises.
Finally the map was done. The map included markers for distance and showed a cluster of houses for the villages. This excited him, but he noticed they were actually quite a distance away. Also, he was two tiers higher than them so he needed to locate ways up and down. He liked this area, so he had already decided this would be a better place than some others he’d seen in pictures to settle. At least somewhere in the area would be nice.
It was already obvious the wildlife was varied, and there were plenty of trees, grasses, water, and most importantly trade!
But first, he turned to the Sabretooth. He had to deal with the animal behind him, and maybe process the meat and hide. He had great ideas and plans if he could kill a couple more of these beasts, though he would only need the one for right now.
WARNIG! MINOR GORE AND WHAT SOME MIGHT CONSIDER DISTURBING ACTS ARE ABOUT TO UNFOLD!
As I turned it onto its back like he saw in the hunting shows, I started the arduous task of gutting the animal. I noticed the tiger was female as when I cut around her milk glands they were completely full. A sudden wave of nausea and guilt washed over himself. “Why couldn’t I just die?” Then again, I would’ve just spawned in the same spot, and gotten killed again trying to leave the area most likely. Large cats were highly territorial he recalled, hopefully the male would leave the area since the female was gone.
Anyway, he finished cutting the ‘zipper’ up to the chest cavity revealing the guts inside along with the now dead or dieing newborns inside her uterus. I delicately cut and removed this area to take a look inside to see how close they were to birth.
They were a spitting image of their parent, only about the size of a small dog. I was observing the half a dozen or so kits when one of them suddenly squirmed a little. I was so shocked I just stared at it for a moment. Then I lunged forward and stuck my hand in its mouth trying to remove the fluids it was in, when this didn’t do it I held it by the hind quarters trying to get the liquid out shaking it lightly. Suddenly the kit started mewling as a huge stream of gunk dislodged somewhere in its throat.
I quickly cut its umbilical and held it close to my chest in case it needed warmth. Then another started squirming, then another two. I quickly did the same thing to all of them. I was holding them all when one started going limp and kept coughing, another was breathing hard. I had no idea what to do so I just held them up and swung them again. More liquid came out but soon after they both died, both were smaller so must have been less developed. The other two were still dead, laying on the ground where I had put all of them after extraction.
When the third survivor started doing the same, tears were streaking down my face in torrents. It went much the same, after that the first one I had retrieved was the only one left. I held It tight for a while just staring at it. It seemed this one was stable, but only time could tell. When it started nudging me I lifted up one of the teats from the mother now secluded from the body and the kit fed hungrily for a few minutes eating half of this one small sack full. There were six in total, so if he could keep it cool, the kit had a little while left. After the kit fell asleep I put the football sized thing aside in some flat grass with the milk.
After recovering from the shock of what just happened, Derrek back to work. He set the heart and, liver along with some of the guts to one side along with the bladder. Nothing would go to waste, he did after all need tools and anything he could trade or build with would be a great contribution to his survival before the coming winter.
Finally he was left with the main body of the cat so he cut a hind quarter off it, skinning it as he went to keep the pelt whole. Then he went in search for some fire wood returning a few minutes later with an armload of semi damp and dry grass. Starting with some resin covered branches and grass, he started the slow task of using the shoddy flit and steel. It was a surprisingly new design, but it was still of poor quality. Having grown up during a war, he was taught some basic survival and watched some videos online incase the United States were ever invaded. After a few minutes of sparks and repositioning twigs, a wisp of smoke meandered from the grass. Unfortunately it went out so he continued until it happened again, then blew on it lightly until a small flame appeared. It immediately ate up the small grass and twigs so he set some branches on top.
After a little longer, the fire was the size of a camp fire. Sitting out in the open on the edge of the trees, he fed the fire until he felt it was safe to leave again for more supplies.
Meandering close to the camp he found some low hanging branches that were fairly straight with a lot of branches shooting off here and again cutting them with his knife. Picking six of these, Derrek headed back to camp gathering regular wood for the fire itself.
Arriving back at camp the kit was up so he fed it again until it was full and simply cuddled up in the grass again.
Taking the branches I collected, I set up a pyramid above the fire using the crooks in the branches to hold itself in place. Then, I put the other straight branches and cut the extra branches off. Cutting large steak sized slabs of meat I skewered them and hung them along the branches sticking out of the pyramid.
After the whole quarter was set smoke/cooking over the fire I set up three more fires in a line doing the same for the rest of the meat. The front shoulders were smaller, so any other bodily meat fit on those skewers. I saved the tenderloins and back straps for real meals and set about wrapping them in huge oak leaves. I tied those shut with some long tendons in the leg bones leading to the ankle. I just roasted it for a moment so it was dry enough to work.
I sat back holding the kit while observing the carcass and hide. I needed tools, but what kind? Another knife maybe, and a sword or bow would be nice? Or maybe some constructions tools? There was definitely enough material to work with, but what to use… I walked over to the still furry skull. I looked at the obvious daggers sticking from the mouth, but I was at a loss what to do about retrieving them.
Grabbing a couple rocks I tried smacking them lose. This got me thinking and after a few minutes I remembered. One time I saw a hunter remove elk teeth using this method with a knife. “Yes, that’s it!” I quickly picked up the bronze dagger and pointed it at the base of a fang. The tool was much smaller, but that didn’t matter. I then picked up a flat sided rock and pounded the dagger in as far as it could go. Then I wiggled it lose and did the same on all the sides.
Finally, I took the rock and smacked at the base of the fang until after a while I felt something give. With one final smack it finally came lose. I was so excited I cut myself causing 2 points of damage to myself before I started into the other fang. It went much fast the second time. In the end I was holding a bulky head about two feet long and one and a half wide with two fangs about a foot and a quarter long. I immediately sat back after the hard work and checked the meet before returning to think some more.
Reading an article about the American Indians I recalled them using the brains for tanning, but the skull was so thick it would take a long time to get into it. Then I remembered the system assist for the map making.
What if you could create skills to help with tanning and processing? I grabbed the huge hide and pulled it over near the skull, hold his knife in one hand and hide in other he was hoping for some sort of message unfortunately nothing happened. I immediate went back to sit but I had left my dagger on the skull. Suddenly I tripped and fell landing in front of the things skull again. I was staring in its mouth once again, but before I could get up I noticed something odd about the back of the mouth. He had cut the skull off the carcass to work with it, but there was a section of the mouth that seemed to call to him.
There was almost an itch in his fingers to begin working. Taking my dagger, I cut into the roof of the mouth and immediately set to work removing the flesh from the inside of the mouth. After a while the system seemed to take over again, just like the mapping skill and he heard a *Tring, as he worked. After a while the skull seemed completely devoid of any hair or flesh. The jaw finally came lose allowing him to work easier, not that he was doing much but watching.
Washing it in a stream close to camp and returned to work except he grabbed a sharp long rock and started to saw at the top of the mouth cavity. When he broke through the nasal cavity, then into the brains he set the skull aside and spread the hide out. After that he started scraping and cutting lose any fat, veins or blood clinging to the pelt.
Afterwards, still in the trance he spread the brains out on the skin and uttered a few guttural words naturally. Another *Tring! Could be heard. Suddenly there were a couple of flashes. When his eye-sight returned he received a few messages.
~You have discovered the skill ‘Tan’~
~You have gained 100 experience (570/700)~
~You have created 1x heavy Sabretooth pelt, may be use in crafting many items.~
~You have created 1x Clean Sabretooth Skull (Crafting Item)~
Holding the skull he looked at it skeptically, it wasn’t the lightest, though he supposed it wasn’t too bad now. He was wondering how to develop it further when he glimpsed the sun setting again. He set the skull aside before he stoked the fire and settled in with the kitten nestled on his chest under the pelt.