There was a pleasant surprise waiting for me when I woke up. At some point during the night, my level went up from 6 to 7. After some deliberation, the best idea was to increase Mind. Even if my daily life was heavily reliant on moving, the Mind attribute was still sitting at 1. It was hard to tell the benefits of increasing it if I never actually did that. According to the System. Mind ruled over the speed in which thoughts were processed, and the fine control of skills. This could help when using {Body Regeneration}. How much that would help? I had no clue, which was exactly why some testing was needed.
A part of me also hoped that this would increase my Memory, or the amount of Energy I could store. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Those attributes only increased when there was a level up. Neither Mind, nor Body would ever influence them.
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Cassandra Ydorf - Level 7
Titles: Enduring Heart
Tier 0
Mind 2 - Body - 7
Memory - 4 Energy - 3/4 (1 Reserved)
Skills - 4/4
Quick Tier 1 Evolution - Passive
Energy Storage - Passive - 1 Energy
Body Regeneration - Active - 1 Energy/ 10 minutes
Compression - Active - 1 Energy/ 5 uses
Mind of Possibility - Available
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That looked good enough for another hunt since it seemed like the Eater that was still lingering outside couldn’t come closer for some reason. Maybe this mountain had a similar version to that barrier pops created. That was a bit of a stretch, but who knows.
After finishing to wake up properly, it was time to hunt once more. However, I also wanted to take a risk. Soon after reaching the top of the terrace, my eyes started searching for trees with a lot of sap. This idea would require some fire starter, and tree sap and a log that I could cut or break in a specific way. Just a few minutes later, with the help of a couple of rocks, one sharp to work as a wedge and another big to be the hammer, I created what Pops used to call ‘Swedish Fire.’ A single log that worked as a pyre. It had to be split in a specific way and have several dried leaves and chancres placed inside it. Then, using the sap as the fire starter, it quickly began to burn. The moment that happened, I dashed away as fast as I could.
[Inquiry: What is user currently doing?]
Once there was enough distance between the fire and me, the next step was climbing on a large tree and hide. Only after I was properly set up on a tall branch, and felt confident an Eater wouldn’t be able to find me, that the System got an answer.
‘I’m trying to see if I can make a fire here without getting killed. And trying to confirm if that Eater really can’t come here or not.’
Glancing down to where the forest in front of the cave was located, my eyes scanned the area. It took a while, but eventually I found that same pattern of movement. Some of the trees were being pushed while the Eater moved through the ground. It started approaching but eventually stopped. After a pause, the trees shifted again, this time going to the side.
‘System, can you mark a line where the Eater is? I want to see if it ever gets closer.’
[Understood. System will mark the limit of Eater’s location.]
A blue line appeared in the middle of the forest directly in front of where the trees were being pushed around. For the next hour, I watched the Eater go back and forth on a set path, never going beyond that blue hologram. I had to admit, the System could be pretty useful even without considering the skills and the physical benefits.
I felt confident enough that the Eater wouldn’t be coming here, even if I had no clue why. After dropping down from the tree and doing a double check if the Swedish Fire was still burning, which was the case, I put out the flames and started searching for my prey. Today my meal would be warm, at least.
There was a reason to do something this risky that went beyond the comfort of a cooked meal. Last night, my stomach had a serious disagreement with me. Likely due to the two-day-old meat I ate. At least the food still stayed inside and didn’t come out on either end. But the pain that accompanied that experience was not something I wanted to feel again.
Not even one hour later, I found a deer. Not a mutated one, or something strange, but a regular old deer. Well, not old, it looked pretty young. Slowly approaching it, my first move was a charge similar to what the boar did to attack me. Just like the one I’ve been practicing over and over again in the cave. But it failed, the animal was too quick on its feet and ran off.
I followed, and the hunt lasted for a few hours. Several times, I saw the deer hopping while using a tree as a platform in order to escape. Eventually, it became clear that chasing it wasn’t going to work. For a few minutes, my focus became creating traps for the creature. In addition, I left a few others that could capture something else for me to catch later.
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Luring the animal to my trap was much easier, after all, it already knew I was chasing it and the deer seemed to understand that going down the mountain, to where the Eater was, would be much more dangerous. Unfortunately for it, while trying to escape me, the animal jumped in one of the pitfall traps I created. It was just a large hole made thanks to me using {Compression} on the staff to make a small incision on the ground, and then placing a compressed rock that pushed all the dirt away from an area.
It wasn’t a pretty trap, but it worked, and soon I was eating a serving of properly cooked venison. It was still missing some spices, and salt specifically, but it was amazing to be able to eat something like that. Another unexpected benefit that came from this hunt was a small push to the next level. Killing the deer gave me another 5% progression to level 8. Even if it didn’t show up as a mutated monster for the System. Apparently, if a creature had SP inside their body but they didn’t have enough to reach level 1, the SP would still stay there. Once I killed their host, the particles jumped into me.
Next came the cooking. I reignited the Swedish fire using some branches I found on the path and started preparing the venison. There wasn’t much I could do in relation to spices, and actually draining the meat wasn’t much of an option. Without water, or a river, the only alternative was to hang the corpse upside down, but that would take a while and attract other predators. In addition, with fire and enough time to work with the meat, making jerky wasn’t a farfetched idea. That would somewhat solve the food problems. At least for a couple of days. Also, if something did come along, it might help me level up. The more predators came close, the quicker I would reach level 10.
Was I really considering luring animals and other monsters just to level up a bit? I guess so.
“When did I become an adrenaline junkie,” my voice came out in a whispered sigh.
[User does not seem to be suffering from any addiction.]
“That’s not what I meant. It’s about looking for dangerous situations.”
[User has proven that hunting is an effective way to level up.]
“Yeah. And if I level up I'll be more confident about getting away from the Eater,” I started preparing the meat, some pieces went directly on top of the fire, while the ones that would become jerky had to be prepared. If even a little bit of fat was on those pieces, then it could all be ruined, after all, fat was the part of meat that spoiled quickly and then it would spread to the rest. After making a place that was far away enough from the fire to dry the venison without cooking it, everything was ready.
After eating, I found a place where my back would be against a large tree. From there, anything that came close to the camp could be seen. It didn’t take long for something to happen, a boar appeared from behind me. One that was a bit smaller than the mutated one, but it did have a second set of tusks that seemed to be starting to grow. The System also didn’t say anything, which should mean it wasn’t mutated to the point of being considered as a creature heavily influenced by the system particles.
Quickly retrieving the staff, I gripped it tightly as the animal sniffed the air. By my guess, the scent of food that was over the fire should hide my location from the boar. At least for a moment. The problem was, my guesses sucked. The boar didn’t take more than three seconds to notice me and begin its charge.
Taking a page out of the deer book, I kicked off from the tree, jumping above the creature. With a twirl, I pivoted in the air and slammed the tip of the staff between the boar’s eyes. The impact made it stumble, giving an opening for another attack, this time a downward strike aimed at the same location. Since my weapon of ‘choice’ was a staff, the goal was to aim at places that were close to the bone instead of hitting the soft muscle and fat. That sounded like a better way to go about things.
Needless to say that was only my idea. I had no clue if that was how things actually worked. Still, the first move landed correctly, sending the boar a bit off balance, but the second one failed. Rather than properly hitting the bone, the tip ended up going straight into the animal’s shoulder. Jumping back, I scrapped my foot in the ground before going for a charge, using the staff as a spear. That didn’t work either, I ended up bouncing back after barely doing any damage, giving an opening for the animal to counter. It tried to gore my legs, hitting the wooden shin guards with enough strength to pierce the wood and get stuck to my flesh.
I quickly brought the staff down on top of the boar’s snout, crushing the bones as the metal pipe went through its upper and lower jaw and pinned the creature to the ground. Only then I was able to get my leg free, already triggering {Body Regeneration} to make sure the wound wouldn’t become even worse.
The boar struggled, trying to get away, but it couldn’t break free from the metal pipe that was now embedded in the ground. Not wanting to let it suffer that much, and being a bit worried about the noise it was making, I approached the creature with the bone knife in hand. If this was bigger, I would be using it instead of the staff, but currently, it was too small. If someone tried to fight with it, it would barely be any different from hand to hand combat.
With a quick motion, the knife glided through the boar’s neck, killing it on the spot. Or at least, that’s what I told myself. In reality, it would take a few moments for the animal to pass, but trying to strike its brain was a waste of a good knife. Surviving was more important than just being kind.
While I still watched the boar struggle, a noise caught my attention. Turning around, a large mountain lion with dark brown skin, large claws and two tails slowly approached.
[Mutated Mountain Lion - Tier 0 - Saturated]
The monster was looking at what was left of the dear, but it was obvious that it still could see me. Taking a step back, I grabbed the staff and with {Compression} turned it into a small, non threatening chopstick in my hand. The monster continued to approach the carcass of the deer as I continued stepping back without facing away from it.
Once the monster lowered its head to eat, I bolted away like there was no tomorrow. At the same time, the loud echo of metal grinding against metal resonated through the forest below. Not only I had to worry about a fucking mutated mountain lion in this part of the woods, but the Eater was complaining about the lack of attention. Fucking great.