Before I even had a chance to react a large snake whipped out towards me and struck me in the thigh. It lodged its teeth in through my leather pants and I screamed out in shock. I began to beat at it with my fists to no avail as the health bar in my vision began to drop rapidly. I grabbed a throwing knife and stabbed it in the body over and over again until it finally released its grip on my leg. I glanced at my health bar and over half had been depleted. I scanned the rest of the branches in the limited light filtering down from the moon, I couldn’t see anything but my paranoia was ramped up. I knew some of the snakes that lived in this area but I couldn’t identify if it was venomous just from sight, I had never paid close enough attention in class.

While I was staring at the snakes form on the ground, a notification pinged in my vision. I focused on it and nearly fell off the branch as the large words formed again in my vision, this was something I was going to have to get used to.

Eter common snake - Snake found in the forests and plains of Eter - Beast - Lvl 2

Congratulations! You have learned a new skill!

Identify - Active - Displays all known information about a target by focusing on them. Amount of information based on level disparity between targets.

I focused on my skills and it brought up both of the ones I had earned so far.

Skills - Level

Enhanced Explosion

2

Identify

1

Enhanced explosion had leveled up during the awful explosion that killed the Norx soldiers

And my friends. Identify was still level one, based on the information it seemed like focusing on an object or target. I could learn about it as long as I was a higher level than it was. I continued to scan the branches around me, I debated leaving the tree and returning to the ground but the panthers scared me more than the idea of other snakes. Thinking about the snake, I brought up the combat log for that.

Eter common snake has bitten you! 4 damage per second will occur until dislodged!

Thankfully there didn’t seem to be anything to indicate the snake was venomous, my health remained at about half, I could bring up the actual numbers, but the bar seemed just as helpful. While I thought over the health bar, I saw the number tick from 24 to 25. This seemed to indicate that I would heal with enough time.

The pain in my leg was already lessened, more like a sharp twinge now than the lancing dagger it had been before. I wasn’t sure how much time was left before dawn but I needed to try and rest. I was running on empty and needed to have a clear mind to evaluate my plan for the day once the sun came up. I hoped that snake had been the only occupant in this tree. I put my back to the trunk of the tree and closed my eyes.

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I woke to sun rays shining gently through the canopy above me. After a small moment of panic the events of the previous night came back to me. I ventured back towards the area I had left my supplies in after I had killed the panther. I hated to think about it in such terms but that was reality. I had never been a violent person, nor a hunter. I was now a killer of beasts and humans, it was not a comforting feeling. I found the corpse of the panther and approached it, trying to trigger identify.

Forest panther - Level 7 - Dead

It looked like dead beasts wouldn’t give as much information as alive. It had been level 7, much higher than the snake. I was glad it had stepped on the mangler, I couldn’t imagine trying to fight two of those with my limited supplies. I knew panthers could climb trees as well or better than humans, I needed better shelter. My fieldcraft classes had taught the basics of skinning an animal and preparing food.

I decided this spot was as good as any and began to try to build a shelter. I had some supplies from the camp but nothing that would help with this. The clearing at the base of the large tree was about fifteen feet wide and 30 feet long. This would be a great spot for a small cabin or structure but I had never learned how to build them. I decided to use the spot in the tree that I had previously slept in. It was about 20 feet off the ground and situated between two large branches that extended from the trunk, giving a solid platform.

I gathered branches of similar shapes and lengths, using some tripper wire to hold them together, almost like a raft, and secured them to the large tree branches. I tried to find some leafy branches to create a ceiling with mixed success. I was running out of tripper wire and needed to keep some to establish a defensive perimeter. I had given up on trying to return home. Things had changed, I needed to change or I was going to be left behind. I spent the rest of the morning skinning the panther, at some point the system rewarded my efforts with a notification.

Congratulations! You have earned a new title!

Congratulations! You have crafted an item! New specialty unlocked!

My new title was “Crafty”, I received it for creating something with your bare hands and knowledge. It unlocked a special crafting skill tree that I did not want to look at yet. I had too much to do to get lost in notifications. When I finished skinning the panther I laid the pelt out to dry across a tree branch, I dug out a small fire and created a cooking spit. I started to cook the panther meat with the intention of creating dried jerky. I had seen the cooks at the army camp do this and the process seemed simple enough, low heat for a long period of time.

I knew the smell might start to attract predators so I got started on creating a defensive perimeter. I laid out the remaining trippers, stringing them between trees and creating a roughly circle area around my campsite that would alert me to movement. I connected these trippers to poppers, the sound would immediately wake me or alert me to the direction of encroachment. I had several smokers and bangers left. I was hesitant to use the bangers as I would not be able to directly control the size of the explosion.

I decided to bury one of them on the far side of the camp and connected it to a tripper that I could pull from my sleeping platform. I hid the smokers in various spots in case I needed to create a distraction. I only had two knives left and they were really only fit for stabbing at close range and throwing. I had a full quiver of 20 arrows and the ability to make more with a fletching kit. There was a stream a few hundred feet from the campsite which would provide easy access to water without being too close to the predators that gathered there.

I made it a point throughout the day to focus on everything that I could, feeling my identify skill work and getting various descriptions. I could use the skill on almost anything, although the results could be underwhelming, returning descriptions such as “rock”. I knew I needed to level that skill, I could feel that it would start to provide more crucial information in the future.

As night fell I doused the fire and laid back upon my platform. I felt accomplished at all I had done that day, I had a solid platform to sleep on, still marginal cover over my head and to the sides, but it was better than the night before. I just needed everything to be better than the days before. I thought of my mother again, the other people I had known in the 3rd legions camp. I hoped they had made it back to Eter. I hoped to see them again one day. I felt lonely, the isolation of the forest closing in on me. I closed my eyes and let the sounds of nature take me to sleep.