I spent the rest of the day moving the giant rock back to the mine. I got it about halfway before the light began to fade to the point that I was uncomfortable remaining outside. The falcon stayed on my shoulder for about half the day, occasionally flying away and circling overhead. I saw it dive down a few times and catch something it would eat before returning to my shoulder.
One exception was when it dove back down to me and dropped a small mouse to the ground. It chirped and looked expectantly at me. If birds could sigh it would have as I ignored the mouse and decided to just keep moving the rock. I tried to tell it that I didn’t eat raw mice but it just chirped back at me. Apparently falcons could have a lot of personality. I decided to jog back to the cave and the falcon let out a delightful chirp as it followed along in the air. It would fly far in front of me before turning around and swooping back down to land on my shoulder.
Arriving back home, which the old mining camp had started to feel like, I headed to the mess hall. The falcon had flown off to one of the surrounding trees, likely sensing that I was heading inside for the night. I wasn’t sure if it was living in the trees or somewhere farther away. I was happy for the companionship and wished it could come inside.
The bushbear wasn’t ready yet so I settled in for another meal of mystery meat and vegetables. While I appreciated the food it was definitely getting bland, I needed to be on the lookout for more types of berry or fruit to add to the ingredient pile. I wasn’t sure if the 3 bushbear would only make 3 meals or if it would get added to the mess hall’s ability to continue creating food.
After spending an hour learning about the alchemy lab, I decided not to try to craft a banger yet as I was pretty tired. I triggered Identify on every type of equipment that had appeared on my rudimentary alchemy table. I knew it could be upgraded in the future, the upgrades were locked out, I would gain access to upgrades when I upgraded the town to level 2. Everything that I successfully used Identify on created an entry in my guide. I had beakers, or containers, of various sizes, pots, a large heating cauldron, tools for holding certain items, and gloves that would not burn my hands. It looked just like a table from back at the camp for the army alchemist.
I turned in for the night and headed to bed, it felt like a pretty productive day and tomorrow I was hoping to finish getting the stone back to the mine. I wanted to start playing around with the alchemy table but I needed the rest of the ingredients, types of stone were not included in the starter kit worth of supplies in the supply pantry.
Waking up well before dawn, I was surprised to feel completely awake and alert. A factor of my new stamina plus the bed percentage of regeneration increase. Even though I hadn’t taken any damage I could still tell that fatigue accumulated and I still needed rest. I decided to head to the crafting hall while I waited for the light.
Pulling out my framework guide to explosives I began to gather the supplies it indicated I would need. I officially started my first crafting session by grinding up the grayson root into the finest powder I could with the tools that I had. I used a pestle to crush the root inside of a mortar. I had to consult the guide several times to learn the terms for all of these tools. It took me quite a while to grind the grayson root to a fine enough powder based on the bangers that I had used in the past. I took one out and removed the powders from the container to compare the root.
Once I was satisfied with the root powder I began to grind up the ferrica bark, this took significantly more time and when the light started to peek down through the skylight I had only finished a few pieces of the tough bark. I set aside the finished ingredients in empty containers provided by the lab.
I ate a quick breakfast and left the mine to go and hopefully finish getting the flint rock back to base. As soon as I walked out through the door I was met with a shrill chirp and my familiar little friend landed on my shoulder. The falcon gave me a quick peck on the head and nuzzled against my neck. I almost teared up at the affection shown by the falcon, my sense of loneliness fading quickly. “How did you sleep? Good? Me too. You should try out the bed when you can come inside, it's marvelous!” I told the very non-human and non language understanding falcon.
I had brought out an extra serving of the mystery meat and set the plate down on the ground. The falcon hopped off and landed beside it, investigating the food. It gave it a quick peck and then I could almost see its eyes light up. It devoured the rest of the meal chirping happily when it landed back on my shoulder. I had a good feeling about today.
It took me about an hour to make it back to the large rock of flint. I hoped this was enough to last me the rest of my life as I never wanted to have to do this again. I alternated between carrying the massive rock and watching the falcon soar around me and above my head. I was on the last few miles when the falcon shrieked, it dove down to me and landed on my shoulder. It pecked my head harder than it ever had and shrieked right in my ear. It leapt back off my shoulder and back in the air, circling high above.
My immediate thought was that it had spotted something that I needed to know about. I dropped the rock and moved over to a thick set of brush at the base of a large tree. The falcon continued to circle around but had stopped making noise since I hid. I mentally thanked the ever growing bird and waited in the cover with my hand wrapped around a banger inside the bandoleer.
After about 3 minutes of waiting, my nerves were about to flow over. It was hard to just wait not knowing what was going on but I had developed a strong trust in the falcon and knew I needed to stay put. I strained my ears to hear anything moving through the mostly open forest. The first sound was a loud thump that sounded far away but occurred regularly. I started to hear the sound of bushes being trampled and the swaying of trees corresponding to the thump.
It took another minute for the largest beast I had ever seen to appear in my vision. It was absolutely massive, the size of the entire common room of the old mining camp and then some. It had four large legs that led to a torso that was 20 feet off the ground. Once it was fully in vision my shock had subsided enough for me to realize it was like a giant panther. I stupidly triggered Identify before I could process how terrible of an idea that was if it could sense when it was identified.
Country Beast Lord - Intelligent Beast - Eleuthera - Level 50 - Massive panther worshiped by the forest nation of Phua as a God. Not native to Eter.
I held my breath as I read the description. A country beast lord? It was nearly twice the level of the regional beast lord I had defeated when I killed the cave bear. It didn’t appear to notice my identify or it simply didn’t care, it continued on its way and after a few minutes I couldn’t hear or see it anymore. I stood up and leaned against the tree, taking deep breaths to calm myself. I checked the guide to see if there was an entry for a country beast lord.
Country Beast Lord - These beasts rule over a section of each nation of a framework planet. There can be as many as 10 depending on the size of the nation, there is always at least one. Killing one creates the same situation as a regional beast lord, triggering a fight between the local regional beast lords to be elevated to country beast lord.
Well that was certainly something I hoped to never see again. Motivated by absolute terror I moved the flint rock back home at a much increased pace and managed to make it back just as the sun was setting. I was sad that the falcon couldn’t come inside, I was scared of its safety outside with beasts like the eleuthera out there.
Hopefully after this 30 day tutorial period was over tomorrow the falcon would choose to come inside and stay safe. I wondered if future upgrades would allow me to make some sort of outpost or something for it to live in. I dragged the large rock down to the crafting hall and realized I had no idea how to break it apart and grind it up. I consulted my guide but found nothing useful. I had an idea but it wasn’t a great one. I remembered how the second level of the mine didn’t get damaged by my explosions. I could drag the large rock down to one of the dormitories and detonate it, hopefully creating some smaller and more manageable rocks.
It took another hour to get the rock in position in the small square room on the second level. I had chosen the one farthest away just in case there was collateral damage. I put two bangers in the room and closed the door, deciding to test out my range of 200 feet. I was really getting tired of blowing myself up and barely surviving. I went all the way back up the ramp to just before the door, hoping this was 200 feet. I triggered remote detonation and felt the entire mine shake. I really hoped it maintained its structural integrity after defeating the dungeon, it was good to go ahead and test this out early. What if I was able to make even larger explosives in the future? I would need somewhere to test them.
I walked back down and opened the door, a rush of dust coming out of the room and behold the chaos inside. There were small chunks of flint everywhere, thankfully the room had had nothing inside except stone bunks so there was nothing else destroyed. It seemed like the camp would be impervious to my explosives at this level. I picked up a small chunk of the flint and headed back to the crafting hall.
Using the mortar and pestle to grind up the smaller chunk of flint to a fine powder resembling the disassembled one the framework had given me. I dumped the powder out of that one and filled it back up with my own powders. I was excited to try it out and given that I had just proven that I had a practice room, I scampered back down to try it again. I placed the explosive in the middle of the room and backed outside, closing the door. Triggered remote detonation from the other side of the large central room I heard a loud bang. A notification appeared in my vision and I checked it.
Congratulations! You have crafted your first simple bomb!
Congratulations! You have earned a new title!
Congratulations! You have unlocked a new crafting skill!
Congratulations! Alchemy has leveled to level 2!
New Title! Weapons of Mass Destruction! First in the world to create an explosive from scratch! Grants a new crafting recipe - Standard bomb - Grants +2 to alchemy skill level, -1 to charisma!
Another hit to my charisma, I had no idea why I was punished for that other than maybe people were scared of explosives. It's not like I had met anyone else to even be afraid of them in a month. My alchemy was already level 4 which would give me a 4% increase to efficiency when crafting.
The guide referred to crafting efficiency as requiring less ingredients, being done in less time and with less of a chance of failure. I noticed that the name for my bangers had changed to simple bomb. This change had affected the ones in my bandoleer as well. I looked over my new recipe for a standard bomb. It required twice the amount of grayson root, flint and ferrica and added a new ingredient called Gossamer Tar. I checked my guide for a mention of this and returned nothing, it seemed I would have to explore for it using my map.
It also needed me to create appropriate containers for it, unless they were in the supply pantry. The only difference in the description was that its base damage was doubled at 100 instead of the 50 from a simple bomb. This would double the explosive power of my enhanced explosion skill, creating an even more powerful explosion with a larger blast radius of 50 feet compared to the 20 of the simple bomb. I would have to be even more careful to not blow myself up.
I spent the rest of the night creating as many of the simple bombs as I could. I found out that I could store things I crafted in my inventory and switch them to my bandoleer as it emptied. I was able to make 17 more before I ran out of resources bringing my total up to 22. Would all 22 combined even be enough to kill that Eleuthari? Somehow I doubted it.
Using the guide to help guide my calculations I tried to figure out how much damage all of them would do together, the only part I didn’t know was if the damage all stacked. The simple bomb had a base damage of 50, that multiplied by 22 equalled 1,100. Taking that number and plugging it in to my enhanced explosion skill, 1,100*(7-17)*3, gave me 7,700 on the low end and 51,000 on the high end. That would kill me hundreds of times over.
I was feeling extremely confident in myself as I lay down in bed. Tomorrow was going to be the last day of the tutorial. My falcon friend would be able to come inside the town, I would venture out and gather more resources, maybe even try to find my way back towards Etes and my actual home.
It wasn’t until I woke up to a notification that I realized how stupid I was being by thinking anything would go my way.
Congratulations subjects! Today is the last day of the tutorial! All town roles have been assigned and given time to assimilate. To test the worthiness of all subjects a survival event will begin in exactly one hour. Each town will be attacked by a beast wave once an hour, each wave will only be cleared when the lead beast is slain. A wave may also be cleared by 10% of the population of the town being killed. There will be 10 waves in total. Rewards will be granted at the end of every round. Total contribution will determine reward, this can be tracked in real time. Good luck to all current framework citizens! Remember the most important rule of the framework, Survive!
Stolen story; please report.
Sylar so far;
Sylar Till Age 17 Race Human Class Wildcard Level 14 Strength 19 Stamina 37(36) Agility 25 Intelligence 23 Wisdom 39 Charisma -1 Luck 3
Sylar Till - Titles Quick to violence 4th person in Eter to commit murder -1 to charisma, +1 to all other primary stats Violence I First person in Eter to reach 10 kills Grants +1 to Strength, stamina, agility, intelligence, wisdom Fickle ally First person in Eter to murder allies -5 to charisma, +5 to all other primary stats Slayer of Norx I First person in the world to slay 10 Norx soldiers Increased disposition to Eter and allies, Decreased disposition to Norx. +1 to intelligence and wisdom Out with a bang Planted a bomb that you did not know you would survive the explosion of Grants +1 to luck, agility Bombadeer First in world to kill with an explosive device Grants +3 to wisdom, charisma, grants skill -"Enhanced explosion" Unorthodox I Creating an unorthodox shelter Grants Unorthdox skill Crafty Creating something with your bare hands and knowledge Unlocks crafting specialty tree Punching above your weight class II Kiling a beast 2x levels higher Grants +1 to all primary stats, Gold item box Well rounded First person to reach 100 cumulative stats Grants +1 to all primary stats, Gold equipment box. Slayer of regional beast lord Kill a regional beast lord Grants +5 to all primary stats, Ruby equipment box Survivor II Survive two encounters that leaves you with less than 5 health Grants +2 to stamina, Silver potion box x5 Dungeon Explorer First in Eter to complete a dunegon level! Grants +1 to all primary stats Weapons Of Mass Destruction! First in world to create an explosive from scratch! Grants new crafting recipe, -1 to charisma, +2 to alchemy skill
Skills - Level - Description Enchanced Explosion 7 Explosive base damage*8(8-18)*(Luck) Identify 8 Displays all known information about a target Natural Explorer 10
All resources known to subject added to explored areas.
Remote Detonation 10 2 explosives, distance = (10)*20 feet
Crafting - Level Skinning 3 Ability to quickly and effectively skin beasts Rigging 3 Ability to quickly and effectively rig things together with minimal supplies Unorthodox 3 Ability to craft items from unorthodox supplies Foraging 1 Ability to gather resources without damaging them increased, efficiency increased. Alchemy 4 Ability to combine reagents to create potions, pills and bombs.