Mia sat on the edge of her makeshift cot, her fingers idly tracing the edges of the jacket Hector gave her half a lifetime ago. She glanced over at her friend, he was sitting by the small fire, his eyes fixed on the flickering flames. He was wearing a despondent expression, it was a permanent feature of his face now. Hector wasn’t dealing with the loss of his hand well. He rarely spoke and if he did he only used single words.
Mia was also having a bad time. She couldn't shake the feeling of guilt that tugged at her heart, knowing that it was her decisions that had led to him losing his hand. She still marveled at how she could be so dumb to believe she could get to the pyramid on her own. It was as if her obsession of getting home as soon as possible finally cracked her mind and threw all common sense out the window.
The result was that he sacrificed himself for her, like a goddamn hero, and he managed to survive. However it wasn’t like in one of the stories, where a heroic sacrifice was a clean affair with the hero either conveniently dead or fixed right afterward. Reality was much harsher. Every day she had to watch Hector struggle with the easiest stuff. The first day it took him two hours for a bath in the cold water running next to their hideout. She suspected most of it was undressing and dressing up again.
Fortunately they didn't have any cutlery so at least eating was not so much of an issue.
She sighed.
Mia's thoughts drifted back to the past week, a week that seemed to stretch into eternity. She had mostly spent it with Hector in the hideout. It had been a time of silence, broken only by the occasional words of necessity. The weight of what happened pressed down on all of them, and the heavy cloud of sadness had settled over their home. The memory of their laughter and friendship, the way they had bonded through shared experiences and inside jokes, now felt like a distant dream. Instead, the hideout had been filled with long, uncomfortable silences, each of them grappling with their own fears and regrets.
She wished she could find the right words to mend the growing rift between them, to apologize for what she had caused. She even tried a couple of times but Hector didn’t want to hear any of that and so the silence lingered on. Mia was beginning to fear that the wounds, both physical and emotional, might be too deep to heal. She knew she fucked up royally and that the chances of fixing Hectors hand were low. Even if Diana got something useful at level five it might just be too late.
Frank and Diana were mostly gone hunting to get the level up for Diana. Each day they came back she looked at them with hope in her eyes and each day Frank shook his head with sadness. They left just a couple of hours ago so there was still a lot of time left till they came back. At least with the amount of monsters they were killing the food was not a problem. They still didn't have a way to preserve it, though.
Frank tried to keep her and Hector’s spirits up, chatting them up or telling them jokes. It had a marginal effect on her mood and Hector had shown no change whatsoever. Well at least Frank was trying, Diana was completely focused on her own growth. Each evening after they came back to the hideout she experimented with her runes or Meditated to increase her mana regeneration rate. For all intents and purposes she just wasn’t there.
Not that Mia blamed her, both her and Hector were not the best company currently and what she was doing might actually help in the long run.
Over the past week Mia tried to get into crafting, but couldn't gather the willpower to do it properly. The skins she tried to dry before had rotten beyond the point of usability. Her increased crafting skill told her she needed to remove water from them somehow and cure them using nuts or brain matter but it all seemed like too much work.
She also considered finally making the bow she needed so much but there was always something else to do. Cook the next batch of meat, have a nap, stare at the walls. She just didn't have the motivation, everything seemed so pointless.
She stared at the ceiling but no matter how hard she tried to will it, it just wouldn't collapse on her.
She sighed.
Out of sheer boredom she opened her character sheet
MIA EVERWOOD
CLASS: RANGER
LVL. 1
STR: 8
DEX: 11
INT: 7
WIL: 8
HP: 50/80 MAGICAL EXHAUSTION 3W, 23H: 30 RESERVED
MP: 80/80
SKILLS:
- TRUE SHOT LVL. 1: TIME YOUR ATTACK PERFECTLY TO TARGET A WEAKPOINT.
- TRACKING LVL. 3: LOCATE HIDDEN OR FLEEING TARGETS WITH EASE.
- CAMOUFLAGE LVL. 2: LAY DOWN IN A WAY TO SURPRISE YOUR ENEMIES. THE LONGER YOU WAIT THE HARDER YOU ARE TO NOTICE.
- DOUBLE SHOT LVL. 1 - MAGICALLY CREATES A COPY OF YOUR ARROW AFTER IT LEAVES THE BOW.
PASSIVES:
FORAGING LVL. 1 - GATHER MORE RESOURCES WHEN FORAGING. (ADDITIONAL BONUS IN FORESTS)
WILDERNESS SURVIVAL LVL. 3 - ABILITY TO THRIVE AND ENDURE IN NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS, UTILIZING KNOWLEDGE OF SHELTER, FOOD, WATER, AND NAVIGATION SKILLS TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE IN THE WILD. DECREASES ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE.
ANIMAL BOND LVL. 1- HELPS YOU UNDERSTAND EMOTIONS OF ANIMAL;S YOU ENCOUNTER ON AN INSTINCTUAL LEVEL.
CRAFTING LVL. 2 - KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL OF CREATING NEW ITEMS FROM RAW MATERIALS.
SPEAR MASTERY LVL. 5 - PROFICIENCY WITH SPEARS, INCREASING ACCURACY AND DAMAGE OUTPUT WHEN WIELDING THESE WEAPONS.
WARNING YOU HAVEN'T USED THESE SKILLS IN A WHILE. IF YOU DON’T USE THEM, THEIR LEVEL IS GOING TO DECREASE BY ONE.
TRUE SHOT: 1W, 4D, 23H
ANIMAL BOND TIME LEFT: 1W, 4D, 23H
The realization struck her like a lightning bolt. She was not about to lose those skills without using them at least once. She could do nothing about the Animal Bond but she could craft a bow. She finally found at least some motivation and a reason not to procrastinate. Her other archery skill Double Shot probably didn't show up because she got it later. Mia glanced at the materials scattered around the hideout, and got to work.
Over the past week, on her request, Frank brought various parts of the monsters but she never got to using them. Right now she was drawn to a pair of massive front centipede claws, they were made from a weird substance that at the same time was sturdy and had some flexibility. The monsters walked on them and it was capable of regularly piercing stone, so it would probably be good enough for a bow.
Mia's fingers closed around the claws, she sat down and thought on how to approach creating her new bow. The variety of supplies was always low, but she needed to figure this one out anyway. She would make the bow limbs from the claws and use a wooden riser. Cloth would suck as a bowstring so she would need to use monster sinew.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The first step was to create the tools she needed. She made a saw from one of the serrated teeth they had. Next was a piece of charcoal she used to mark the cuts on the claw. Then the natural weapon met the saw's blade. Slowly and methodically, she carved the claws, each to serve as the bow's limbs. They had to be just right. Perfection was the key.
She cut and shortened the claws then filed the ends to make room for the future bowstring.
The day was over before she really started. She was so immersed in her work that she barely noticed that Frank and Diana returned. She ate dinner and worked until she was too tired to continue.
She threw herself into the work wholeheartedly, when she was working and focused she didn’t have to wallow in guilt she felt. She still had nightmares but they were less frequent when she collapsed over the new bow. It didn’t even occur to her that the work had a therapeutic effect on her, she was too focused.
When she woke up in the mornings, the first thing she did was pick up her tools and get back to work. Time of day didn’t matter much here, it was basically always dusk so the “morning” was usually when they woke up or the person standing the last watch got bored. And so she worked for days, paying little attention to the others. Without her noticing as she worked on the bow she also started feeling better.
Patiently with careful precision, Mia chiseled and sanded the claws into smooth, well-shaped limbs. The curve had to be just so, designed to store and release the bow's energy effectively.
A sturdy piece of wood became the riser, the central axis of her new weapon. She didn’t even know that word before coming here, the unearned knowledge came from her Crafting skill. She shaped the riser to fit her hand exactly, it also had a small side window and arrow rest. With shaping and twine, she secured the claw limbs to it, leaving nothing to chance. Every knot was precise, every fastening firm.
The crafting had a meditative quality for her, as the days passed she could feel her mind getting clearer as she processed the trauma in her own way. As the work on her bow progressed she spent more time thinking about what happened and what to do next. Making the bow gave her a new sense of purpose, she also had some ideas how to at least try to help Hector.
As she grew better mentally, the main part of the bow was finished. As she fitted the limbs into the riser something clicked in her mind too. She thought a lot about how selfish and obsessed she became before the fight next to the fallen building, and how others paid for her mistakes. She resolved to not let that happen again. She felt she would rather die than let Hector sacrifice himself for her again.
As for the bowstring a robust monster tendon would fill that role. She asked Frank to harvest a couple that she could use. With meticulous care, she attached it to both ends of the claw limbs. The tension had to be exact – not too loose, not too tight. The first two snapped and the third was too loose and when she shortened it she cut it too short. Fortunately she managed to create the string with the last one.
She stepped back, her work nearly complete. The draw of her new centipede claw bow was powerful, its tension tuned to her liking.
Next were the arrows, she looked through the pile of monster parts for something light yet sturdy enough. She collected a heap of bones, some shattered, others whole, and contemplated how she could transform them into serviceable arrows. Fletching materials were scarce, but perhaps she could create single-piece arrows to work with her new bow.
Mia selected several intact centipede leg bones, their length and density suitable for her purpose. She sharpened one end to form a piercing point, whittling it down until it was capable of penetrating tough hides or armor. The other end was left slightly broader to help balance the arrow's weight.
Each bone arrow was a unique creation, depending on the size and shape of the leg from which it was taken from. She at least tried to keep them a standard length but it was an uphill battle. As she worked on them, she thought of the centipedes she'd fought. It was a grim sort of retribution, to take a piece of her adversaries and turn it into a tool for her survival.
Though lacking fletching, these arrows were streamlined and functional, ideal for her new centipede claw bow. She had no doubts about their piercing capabilities, but accuracy might be another matter.
Time for the moment of truth. She made a target for herself from a couple of pieces of wood, Mia's heart raced. She nocked an arrow and drew, the centipede claw bow proving itself with a satisfying draw strength. She loosened a few shots, the twang of the bow echoing her sense of accomplishment. She hit almost exactly where she was aiming.
In the stillness of the hideout, Mia had transformed the centipede claws into a functional bow. It may have lacked the finesse of a professionally crafted weapon, but it was unique, it was hers.
It felt good to create something with her own two hands. After making the bow and arrows she felt a lot less lethargic, it was as if she regained a part of herself.
Time to use her skill for the first time. Mia felt a bit cheated, yes, she had her Crafting and Spear Mastery but others were using active skills regularly and she couldn’t do that. Up till now.
Drawing the centipede claw bow, she nocked one of her bone arrows and pulled the string back with a fluid, practiced motion she had never practiced. The bow seemed to hum in response to her touch, and she could feel its energy coursing through her.
Time seemed to slow as she aimed at the makeshift target. She concentrated on the center of it, blocking out all distractions. With a deep exhale, she released the arrow, and it shot forward with astonishing speed and precision.
The arrow struck the target dead center, piercing through the wood and embedding itself in the stone wall behind it. The target shuddered from the impact. Mia couldn't help but feel a surge of pride and satisfaction as she witnessed the result of her True Shot ability.
She repeated the process, sending arrow after arrow with unerring accuracy. Each one found its mark, piercing the target with a resounding thud. Mia's True Shot ability wasn't just about accuracy; it was about the connection she felt with her equipment, the harmony between her and her weapon.
With a final arrow that struck the target true, Mia smiled. She was way stronger than before, even if she was still hurting from her last missadventure. That made her think about the leather experiment from before. It was time to do it properly.
The process began with harvesting the skins from the centipedes and other beasts they had managed to defeat. Mia had a pile that Frank got her two days before. These hides were covered in a sticky, foul-smelling substance that needed to be carefully removed. Mia used a combination of rags and blades to strip away this residue, thus ensuring that the skin was clean and free of impurities.
Once the hide was clean, Mia prepared a special solution she had created, made from the mushed centipede brain matter and water. Her crafting skill was really shining. She wouldn’t know eighty percent of this stuff. However now she not only knew the process but had enough knowledge to improvise parts of it. The solution helped to break down the fibers in the hide but also made it smell really really bad. She left the skins to soak and did it in a room outside of their hideout.
Afterwards she cleaned her hands for a really long time to get rid of the smell.
Mia went back to the hideout to get some rest and plan out the rest of the tanning process. She sat down next to the fire and mapped out all the steps in her mind.
After soaking for a specific duration, she would need to carefully stretch and pull the hides, a laborious process that helped to make the leather more supple and less prone to stiffness.The stretching also served to even out the thickness of the hide, creating a more consistent texture.
To prepare for this part she could build more racks. She used the two racks she had built before and added three new ones.
Mia would then lay the hide out to dry. The process of drying could take some time, requiring patience, as Mia would occasionally check the hide's progress.
Once the hide was thoroughly dry, Mia would work it with her hands to soften it further, a repetitive and time-consuming task. The result was a piece of leather that was pliable and smooth. Then she would have to cut it into smaller pieces and craft her first leather armor.
In the meantime she could work on something for Hector.