I threw myself down to the ground to avoid the collision and rolled to my feet closer to the entrance of the cave ready to bolt back inside. My adrenaline was roaring in my ears and I drew one of my throwing knives ready to let it fly. To my absolute shock there was no vicious beast staring me down ready to enjoy a nice lunch, instead a medium size gray falcon was sitting beside the pile of dead bushbears looking up at me expectantly and almost like it was disappointed. I stared back at the falcon trying to figure out what was going on when I remembered saving it in the woods back on the day I fought the cave bear.

It had grown significantly since then. Another memory fluttered in of it attacking the hyena at night giving me time to lose an arrow. I smiled at the bird and said “Hello!''I knew it couldn’t speak but I wasn’t sure what else you were supposed to say to friendly birds that bring you food and protect you. The falcon gave a little hop and chirped in an adorable way, coming closer to me. I walked back over to it and knelt down, I hesitantly reached out and grazed its head with my palm, being slow and gentle to not startle it. It rubbed its head against my palm and gave a satisfied sounding chirp, coming in closer and nuzzling against my arms. I triggered Identify.

Dusk Falcon

Level

6

Health

14/14

It had grown in levels pretty significantly. I tried to remember what level it was back then and I was pretty sure it was only level 2. I wasn’t sure if beasts leveled up as they aged or if they had to earn it the same way I was. I checked the guide for any mentions of this and the information was locked until I visited a beastmaster. I was getting pretty annoyed by the guide referring me to people who as far as I knew did not exist, at least in any meaningful way. I turned back to the pile of bushbears and walked over to it.

The falcon followed me and gave another chirp, it looked proud to me. It clearly had brought these for me to eat, sharing its meals. I grabbed all of them and walked back to the mining camp to bring them to the kitchen. The falcon gave a loud, concerned sounding chirp. For a moment I felt ridiculous giving a beast so much inferred personality but it was a strange world now, best to roll with it. I turned back and watched the falcon standing at the doorway to the camp. I tried to coax it in with no success, it wouldn’t budge from the entrance.

I walked back out and very slowly held out my arms and tried to hold it. It refused and backed away, chirping at me. I had no idea what it wanted so I walked back inside and it came right back to the entrance and chirped. I noticed a notification blinking in my vision and checked it.

Beast detected at main base entrance.

I checked the guide and found out a few more details. No beasts would be allowed in a designated town until after the 30 day threshold, the guide referred to this as the tutorial period. Tutorials were safe spaces where the subjects could learn how to live within the framework in peace. They spawned in population centers and all subjects had to go through the tutorial which ended at 30 days after the framework initialization. There was no mention of people who did not go through the tutorial, which I very much did not, and what happened with them. There was no more information on the tutorials available.

I did not know how many days it had been since the framework initialized, the events all blurring together in my mind. Thinking along this line brought forth another prompt displaying that it was day 27 since the initialization. 27 days since my friends died and the world changed. I didn’t know if that felt too short or too long, the effects of being on my own warping my perception of time. I was frustrated that I had to learn this information on my own in little bits while it was getting handed to everyone else.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

There was no one to vent my frustration too except an abandoned mine and a falcon who no doubt could not understand me so I bottled it up. It seemed like the falcon would not be allowed in for 3 more days. I didn’t know if the falcon would even want to be cooped up in a mine when it lived free in the skies but it definitely seemed like it wanted to be around me. I could relate to feeling lonely. “I’ll be right back, I am going to take these to the mess hall”. I told the falcon, it felt good to speak out loud again even if it was to a beast. I dropped off the bushbears to the ingredient pile as indicated by the mess hall interface and headed back outside. The guide let me know that it would take one full day to integrate new ingredients to the mess hall menu. I needed to find a source of currency as well, I had plenty for now but it wouldn’t last forever.

Arriving back outside the falcon chirped at me again and hopped up, giving one full flap of its wings, and landed on my shoulder. It gave me a little peck to the head which probably would have hurt before my framework enhanced strength and stamina. I reached up to rub its body and it gave another satisfied chirp.

Deciding to continue with the original plan and go exploring, I pulled out my explosives guide to see what I needed to craft my own bangers. It only listed three ingredients; grayson root, flint, and ferrica. I knew what grayson root was as I often collected it for the camp alchemists. Flint was a type of stone that I didn’t know how to identify but would hopefully count as something I could use identify on. Ferrica was new to me, I wasn’t sure what it was.

Pulling up my map I could see markings representing known and unknown resources in the areas I had explored thanks to my natural explorer skill. It also added resources that I had discovered to unknown areas of the map, it didn’t go far beyond the borders of the known area yet but I assumed it would when I creased the skill level.

“We are going to explore a new area and look for some new resources” I told the content looking falcon on my shoulder.

It didn’t respond, just sitting on my shoulder and looking around. I started off in the direction I had chosen earlier that day, north and a little east. I tried zooming out as far as I could to see if anything else showed up but it never did. It took me an hour to get to the border of the area I had been in the week before. I felt slightly nervous and exposed without my bow, only having my bangers for ranged defense. It was overkill to throw them at lower level targets and dangerous to myself and the falcon. I needed to find a new bow or some type of weapon. After another 10 minutes of walking I finally made it to the first marking on the map. It was a grayson bush, all I had to do was pull it free from the ground and harvest root system. As soon as I did that I got a notification.

Congratulations! You have earned a new crafting skill! Foraging! Ability to gather resources without damaging them increased, speed and efficiency increased!

It seemed like the framework was rewarding me for some daily tasks but not others. I wondered how this differed for other people. I wandered around the area finding a few more grayson bushes and collected the roots of them all. I decided I would attempt to plant some near the camp to create my own supply, traveling this far out was not ideal to a fast supply. I had never planted something before and the guide did not have any information for me. I moved to the next marker on the map, they all appeared as a generic shape until I discovered what they were.

This one was a deep pool of water that was clear and cold. I drank deeply and refilled all my water containers, thankful for the cold water. The falcon also slid down to the ground and hopped over to drink from the pool. It took me another hour to make it over to the next marker on the map. It was a large rock, ten feet tall and twice as wide. It must have weighed thousands of pounds and I had no idea how I would gather anything from it. This must be flint, I triggered identify.

Flint - Rock

Thanks framework, I thought sourly. I looked around for smaller chunks and found a few, the smallest was still extremely heavy, it took all my concentration and strength to carry it. I left the flint alone for now and headed to the last marker in the area, it was a small cluster of trees. I triggered identify and learned that they were ferrica trees, the explosive guide thankfully let me know it was the bark I was specifically after. I gathered as much as I could fit in my pack alongside the grayson root. I nearly slapped myself when I remembered about my inventory. I had an entire space with me that I could use to store things. I tried to place the ferrica bark and grayson root in my inventory by willing it in.

Error! Only framework granted items can be placed in an inventory!

“Well that sucks” I stated, the falcon on my shoulder gave a sad chirp like it understood what had happened. I had hoped it would be able to contain some of the rocks of flint. I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. I walked back to the flint boulder and found the smallest one that I could identify as flint. I picked it up and tried to walk. I made it about 50 feet before I had to take a break. It was going to take me a long time to get this rock back to the cave.