The morning and afternoon flew by as I ranged around the forest near the mine. I created a staggered system where all large avenues through the trees would be rigged with trippers and connected to a popper. I was able to hear the sound of a popper detonate from around 250 feet away, far too short to be near the boundary field border. These were mostly to deter beasts that could be scared away easier, anything more determined would likely require action on my part.
Manglers were spaced out around the mine entrance hidden by brush or buried slightly in the ground. I carved the words “Danger. Do not approach” in large flat pieces of bark and placed them all around the area. I did not want to hurt anyone without reason. This felt like the best way to accomplish that without compromising my safety. The notification about beasts becoming more active was concerning and weighing heavily on my mind.
Triggering Identify on every new type of bush, plant, tree, even insects I came across allowed me to start to fill in some more gaps of my knowledge of the forest. Identify would tell me the level of any beast as well as details related to it. Using it on trees or types of plants however just gave me a name unless that name was included in one of my recipes. I couldn’t wait to acquire more recipes once I made it to a larger town. I stayed within the already explored area on my map, not wanting to push my luck and encounter a fight.
Collecting everything that looked or sounded like it was edible, my pack quickly filled and I finished rigging the trippers. When I arrived back at the old mining camp I dumped all the potential ingredients in the mess hall and hoped it would register them. I still needed to either find a cook or find out how to get a skill related to cooking.
Next on the list was to check on the falcon egg. It was still snuggled in the blankets near the middle where there was no risk of it rolling off. The bed in my quarters was exceedingly tempting to lie down in and take a break, I had to resist the temptation.
Triggering beast companion still resulted in nothing. It felt like the right thing to do, I couldn’t explain how, it just wasn’t the right time yet. I had already decided I would bring the egg with me on my journey out of the forest, I couldn’t leave it here alone.
Chores finished for the day I headed back to the alchemy room in the crafting hall. There were so many ingredients left in the supply pantry that I didn’t know how to use, it was frustrating not having more knowledge on the field. Tinkering around for a few minutes before giving up, I wandered down to the second level of the mine.
Walking all the way to the end of the tunnel-like shaped floor led me to a door that had appeared when the notification about the second level of the dungeon appeared. If the pattern of the mine was continued this would likely lead to more dormitories and eventually the actual mine. There were many different types of ore harvested in this forest, I had no way to know which one this mine had been built for.
Two more days passed in a peaceful monotony. My Identify skill had massively expanded my knowledge of the local plants. I had even ventured out to a new location of pyrus berries, taking them back to the mess hall, which had a greatly expanded menu. Eating the pyrus berries reminded me of crushing them to lure the arranx on our last training mission at the academy. Memories of my friends surfacing and depressing my mood. The peace and quiet was nice but I was lonely beyond anything I had ever felt. Checking on the egg every few hours out of desperation for a companion was actually making me feel worse.
On the seventh day after the conclusion to the survival event I woke up with a purpose. It was time to leave and find another town, hopefully Etes. My pack was full of various types of food, dried meats and vegetables, berries and other fruits I had found. I had plenty of water to start and would be able to forage for more with my expanded world map.
The falcon egg was wrapped in a blanket and placed on top of the supplies in my pack where it would be most protected. Looking over my equipment and combat supplies gave me confidence in my abilities to survive. Excitement for more exploration temporarily drowning out the grief and sadness.
Sylar Till
Age
18
Race
Human
Class
Wildcard
Level
25
Strength
31
Stamina
60
Agility
37
Intelligence
35
Wisdom
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
62
Charisma
-1
Luck
4
Equipment - Armor/Base Damage - Condition
Head
None
Chest
Stryker uniform
10
Arms
Stryker uniform
10
Hands
None
Belt
Stryker Bandoleer
10
Legs
Stryker uniform
10
Boots
Stryker uniform
10
Weapon
Stryker Bow
20
Weapon
Stryker Dagger
35
Cloak
Stryker Cloak(2)
25
Inventory
Trippers
0
Poppers
2
Manglers
3
Smokers
8
Simple Bomb
50
Standard Bomb
25
Major Bomb
0
Shrapnel Bomb
5
Hallowed Bomb
5
Arrows
20
Major Health Potions
17
Studying the map during my outings over the last few days had given me a general sense of direction. Etes before the initiation of the framework had been west and a little south of the eternal forest based on the army maps we had studied before taking off for the doomed scouting mission.
There was a large plain north of Etes that ran all the way to the border with Norx that had been mostly farmland and used for animal grazing. The smartest course of action seemed to be heading directly west and finding the plain; there were small farming communities scattered there that I could use to orient myself and resupply.
I triggered the new ability of my cloak to change the appearance of all of my equipment from the obvious specialized army attire to a generic and plain looking brown cloak over simple clothes. Wanting to appear more as a farmer out for a walk than a returning stryker from a war that may not have even been still ongoing. I spent a few minutes thinking of what I would tell people when the obvious questions started coming.
My negative charisma would give people a negative view of me from the start of any interactions so I would have to be careful not to make the interactions even worse. Settling on a simple story to be easier to remember and perfect, I would be a farmer from a small village in the south of the country that had been overrun by beasts, I was fleeing to find other survivors.
The light under the canopy of trees suggested it was around midday when I finally left the mine. Walking over to the grave of the brave little falcon caused me to lose a few minutes thinking over that fateful day. I shrugged off my pack and took a deep breath and began to climb the tree. I needed to see over the canopy to which direction the sun was rising from.
My lessons on navigating in the academy had prepared us to navigate by the sun and stars, you just had to be able to actually see them. Reaching the canopy line in just a few minutes was a feat that would have been unimaginable two months ago.
I could see the bright sun overhead, it wasn’t quite at the pinnacle of the sky but it was enough to know which way was west. The canopy stretched seemingly endlessly in every direction. Reaching the ground and picking up my pack, I began to walk at a brisk pace in the direction I hoped was west. It would take me a few days at least to leave the forest. Expanding my map gave me a good view of what resources were available around me and I made a mental plan to visit each location on my journey.
The first location I crossed was a stream of clear cold water flowing freely. It may have been an offshoot of the one I had previously camped by but I wasn’t sure, both flowing from unexplored areas of the map. The stream was marked on the map with a symbol resembling flowing waves. Drinking deeply and taking the opportunity to refill my water before moving on to the next marker, this one led me to a strange looking plant that had a large red flower in the middle.
Identify said it was a marten flower, I already had these in my guide as they were part of the recipe for crafting major health potions. The marten flower only grew from a sunglow bush when it wasn’t exposed to direct sunlight. The sunglow bush could grow other types of flowers depending on condition. I harvested the marten flower and added it to my pack. Upon identification, multiple flower icons populated my map, indicating more marten flowers. It made sense to me that the flowers would grow heavily under the tree canopy blocking direct sunlight. Knowing the value of the health potions, I ventured out of my way a few miles and harvested 10 of the flowers before the light began to fade.
I found a suitable tree with two large branches near the base and decided to camp out in the branches like I had early on in the forest. There wasn’t enough light left to make a platform out of branches like I had last time so I settled for sitting with my back against the tree and my legs comfortably laid out in front of me. I used the straps on my pack to tie it to the branch and checked on the falcon egg. Triggering beast companion a few times with no results, I decided to call it a night. Sleep came easily after the adventuring of the day even though I already missed the bed from the mine.