The cleanup didn't take very long, and it gave me some time to work through the events of the day. I had to buck up and get over my fear of getting injured. I knew that didn't sound very rational and any sane person had the same fear of getting injured, but my family was behind me. If I couldn't step up, one of them would get injured. What if it was Abigail? Or little Anna or Josh?
Shaking my head of those thoughts, I looked around at the grassy hill that not that long ago held my first battle. It was a weird thought to have about having a first battle, it made it sound like I was a soldier in the medieval ages or something. That was the truth of things though, even if it was odd to think about. Before I could go too far into my musings a voice got my attention.
"It looks like we need points if we want to get any structures from the pylon thing." My Grandfather spoke up from where he had his hand on the obelisk, "How many did everyone get?"
Everyone then gave the number of points that they had gotten during the wave and the average was around fourteen points a person with some having more and some having less. My uncle with the battle axe that finished off the Matriarch had the most points with twenty-one. All put together the whole family had 422 points to our faction name.
With it all totaled up it showed that we didn't have enough for the most basic structure; which was a fancy tent. A tent all the same, but the description said that it had some modifications made to it to increase comfort and durability.
That wasn't close to all the fancy fortifications and additions that you could buy from the pylon. We didn't even have enough to get the most basic of skills and only one person could learn those.
Seeing how it was in the afternoon and we had already eaten dinner as a family, we didn't need to worry about cooking something right at this instant. It would be a worry in the morning and for the following days. There was no way those rabbits were going to last very long with how they were stored currently.
Now that there wasn't a timer counting down to imminent doom, I could go back to taking in the surroundings. Now that I had been bloodied and there were still signs of the battle, the scenery had a different feel to it. Almost like the touch of death previously brought out the peacefulness that now pervaded the hills we found ourselves on. It made it even better in my opinion.
There was a lot to do and a lot of hands to work. My Sister and Grandfather got together and split the whole family into groups and gave us tasks to accomplish. The Rangers and Rogues were given the task of scouting out the surroundings, with an increased focus on the nearest forest to see if there were any threats and or food for hunting.
The rest were split up into groups with one skinning the rabbits, another chopping down trees, another gathering firewood, and the last was trying to use the wood that was cut down to build a smoker for all the meat.
There was some argument over what was going to be built first with some wanting some kind of shelter, but it was decided that food was more important and wasting all the meat that was delivered to us was the height of stupidity.
Thankfully there were enough middle-aged dads here that they actually knew what they were doing, enough that it wouldn't end in disaster with the meat catching fire or worse, the structure burning down.
I didn't end up part of the smokehouse group, fortunately, and was assigned to chopping down trees. Being a young man and having an axe made that an easy decision for the organizers and I didn't much blame them. The only thing I was worried about was dulling my axe and it not being effective when I needed it later.
Chopping down trees was hard. I had never been a lumberjack and never aspired to be one, but I could appreciate the amount of work it took. I'd cut down a few trees in my time but it was always with a chainsaw, and cutting one by hand was strenuous to say the least. It took hours and Jonathan and I took turns so one of us was chopping while the other rested, but we managed it.
Now came the hard part of hauling it back to camp, which was not a two man operation. Some of the scouts were back by that point and some took a break from other groups and all helped in dragging it up the hill. I guess the saying that many hands do light work came from somewhere because it was easier than I thought it would be.
After that, the other tree choppers downed their tree and we repeated the process. By now it was getting dark and exhaustion had set in by the number of yawns I could hear. The little ones looked dead on their feet, half asleep already.
There were murmurs and complaints about having to sleep in the open but there was nothing that we could do about it. The little ones and younger kids got to sleep closest to the fire in the smokehouse with all the adults surrounding them protectively so if anything attacked, the kids would be safest. There was a watch rotation set up but thankfully I didn't have to do that until tomorrow night and I could sleep through the night without worry.
My body must have been more exhausted than I thought because even in the dour sleeping conditions, I fell asleep as soon as I laid down. I wasn't woken up in the middle of the night so there mustn't have been any trouble. All of the firewood that was gathered and chopped was gone though and seeing that I sighed. I knew whose job it would be to get more, and it wasn't little Anna's.
Getting up and stretching revealed I wasn't as sore as I thought I would be. I wasn't in great shape, and after a day of physical labor I thought it would be damn near debilitating soreness that I would wake up to. Especially with the addition of sleeping on the ground. It was still bad, but not as bad as I thought it would be, which was nice.
There was another surprise waiting for me when I awoke. I could see the telltale sign of a notification blinking on the side of my vision. Opening it revealed that I had increased my strength and endurance through training.
That was good news. I guess you could increase in stats through training. Some of the others were up already and I could hear them talking about getting an increase themselves. One of the Rangers who was practicing his aim after the abysmal accuracy during battle yesterday said that he increased agility. One of the mages said that he increased in wisdom and could now fire more than five spells.
I guess that was why they slowed down the fire rate the other day. They must have run out of mana. Their conversation continued and I just listened without saying anything. I was not a morning person and preferred not to speak so early in the morning. Doubly so before having my coffee.
That thought made me want to cry. There was no coffee. I couldn't walk into my kitchen and throw some beans in the grinder, put water in the machine, and have a nice steaming cup of coffee ready in a couple of minutes. No, I was in this stupid tutorial, in these stupid woods and we didn't have any coffee. All of this was dumb and pointless and stupid.
If I wasn't grumpy before I was certainly grumpy now. What kind of person could go through the day without their morning coffee? Sociopaths that's who. And I wasn't a sociopath. At least I didn't think I was.
My sister must have sensed my mood and gave me a pitying look. She knew how much I loved my morning coffee and to do without was sacrilege. The show must go on though, and I couldn't pout about it all day. I'd stop after breakfast, I decided, when we started working again. I didn't think that I could pout through chopping down trees with the physical exertion that was required. Thinking about trying it made me chuckle a little.
Someone must have pooled some points for basic necessities because pots and pans were sitting on the fire above a makeshift stand that looked ready to collapse under the weight.
Nodding my head at the new additions I said, "When did that happen?"
"Earlier when we found out that we had nothing to cook breakfast on. It wasn't that many points and only took a few people to pool together. We also got some cups and a bucket that Uncle Scott took to the river for water. It's already boiled so you don't have to worry about that."
That was great. Not being a morning person always had its perks. Being one of the last ones to wake up meant that breakfast was almost ready and someone already got water. I grabbed myself a cup before shuffling over to the woods for the call of nature. The less said about that experience the better.
I tried to wash my hands in the river but I didn't know if what I did helped or hurt. I might have just traded one bacteria for another. Hopefully, with stat points and magic powers in the mix, it would help keep me from getting sick.
Breakfast was a nice flame-grilled rabbit with a side of rabbit with a complimentary rabbit as well. Not one of the best breakfasts I've ever had but not the worst. There were a few in my early college days that I still question to this day why I ate what I did.
I could hear the kids complaining about the breakfast options and was thankful that I didn't have any. Taking care of a kid throughout this whole process just sounded like cruel and unusual punishment, especially when I was still trying to take care of myself.
After breakfast was over and cleaned up we were split back up into groups to complete the tasks that were given to us. I, unsurprisingly, got the privilege of chopping trees. Go figure. Before Jonathan, who also was on tree duty, and I could start towards the forest my Grandfather walked up to us.
"Try to stay near the camp and be ready to drop everything and come back. We don't know if what happened yesterday is going to happen again and if it does happen again, we don't know when." He said.
"We will." Jonathan and I both said back.
I had that chipper thought in my head most of the day, always looking around to make sure nothing was sneaking up on us. The scouts yesterday didn't find anything but the usual forest animals like squirrels, rabbits, and deer. No one knew if there were any predators like wolves and bears in the forest but being vigilant never hurts.
Nothing ended up happening while we were working except we took a lot more breaks throughout the day, and ended up downing a couple more trees. Most of the work was cutting the tree into usable wood after it was cut down, but luckily I didn't have to worry about that, as that was someone else's job.
After we downed the second, there was a build up of trees so we were told to wait to cut down more until they were needed. One good thing that came out of it was that I never thought that I would be this good at cutting down trees but after felling three of them, I got pretty good at it.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
I remember seeing a lumberjack competition on TV where they competed in different things and one of them was how fast they could get through a log with an axe. After incorporating the technique I saw of chopping at different angles to remove the wood, it made it a lot faster.
Halfway through the day, after lunch was served, which was -you guessed it- rabbit, but before we could get back to our assigned jobs, Granddad stopped everyone. He had us all grab our weapons and shields.
"Now I know that everyone is worried and doesn't know what is going to happen, and I don't know anything that any of you don't, but it's always better to be familiar with your weapon than have no idea how to use it. So before another wave comes or something else attacks us, we should practice fighting each other for an hour or two each day." Granddad said with his voice loud enough for all of us to hear.
It made sense to practice and everything, but the most any of us knew was to stick them with the pointy end. We had no one to guide us on how to fight. Like with my axe, you swing it at things and that was the extent of my knowledge.
Clearing his throat he added, "Also we should decide what we are going to do with the points that we earn. Should we use half for ourselves and save to buy the skills we want? Should we pool all our points to get structures and roofs over our heads, or something else? We should decide before it becomes an issue."
I didn't have a strong opinion on the matter personally. It didn't matter much to me either way it went but I was leaning towards pooling more than less. History has proven that defensible structures mattered most during a siege and that was essentially what this was. After walls were built and the other defensive structures were constructed we could then revisit the points allocation.
Opinions were going in every direction this question could go. Some thought that we should keep all our points and only donate whatever the person felt was appropriate. Some thought that we should pool them all and keep none for ourselves and draw for who got to get skills. Then there were the more moderate who thought somewhere in the middle. There was avid discussion about it, but it never devolved into a screaming match so I guess we had that going for us.
After putting it to a vote it was decided that a fifty-fifty split would occur until there was any additional information to be had that would change that idea. I felt that it was a good thing that point allocation was dealt with before it became a problem. We went on to decide a few other things as a family, like watch schedules during the night, what would be the first things that we worked on building or gathering, and what would be the order in which we spent the allocation of points. No surprise there, with walls being the first thing that was going to be built.
After it was decided, the first thing we had to figure out was how to actually give our points to other people. We found there were a couple of different ways to go about it. Someone figured it out this morning when they had to buy pots and pans. First, we could physically touch the other person and will them an amount of points and it would transfer them. Second, anyone who was touching the pylon at the same time could use the collective total of all their points to purchase things. And lastly, you could spend your points by allocating them towards something specific, like I could spend my 15 points towards the wall and the total cost would decrease by that amount, or show 15/5,000 depending on how you wished it to be shown.
It didn't really matter which way was used to me, it all worked towards the same goal in the end. But there was a discussion on that as well. I was starting to get sick of these discussions, they were starting to get pointless and reminded me of sitting in meetings at work that could have been an email.
Not that it mattered much, but the way that was chosen was the one where we allocated the points toward the item we wished to buy. First on the list being the wall. It was deemed the best for transparency and making sure the points were being spent where we all could see it happen.
Once confirmed the wall sat at a progress of 211 out of the 5,000 needed. That went to show how far away we were from actually getting anything. It felt like the eight points that I contributed didn't do much. Doing the math showed that we would need 25 more of yesterday's wave to get enough points. There had to be ways of getting points in other ways.
There was some thought of building the walls ourselves and using our points for something else, but the description of the walls said 'A palisade that has been constructed of high quality wood and has been enchanted for increased durability.' Everyone agreed that what the pylon could provide with its magic would be better than whatever we could throw together.
One of my uncles was a contractor who helped build houses and he downright said that we had nothing to actually build anything with and the best we could do was shove trees in the ground. We had no concrete to anchor posts into, nor did we have screws, or any kind of adhesive to fasten anything together with. We were working with anything that we could make ourselves and that list was limited, extremely so.
After that point was brought up and the lack of any tools or parts was acknowledged, someone did a deep search through the shop and found that we could buy most of everything that was needed. Screws, nuts, bolts, and tools were all available to be purchased along with planks and ingots of metal in different sizes but the prices were egregious. It was over 100 points for a plank of wood the same size as one we got from a tree we cut down today, and metal was even worse.
The odd thing was it was listed under profession resources, so we should be able to get professions somehow, but no one was able to find out where. We assumed we would have to upgrade the pylon to find out.
With all of what needed to be sorted out accomplished, we could get back on with the rest of the day and get back to the tasks at hand. I went back to chopping trees for wood and everyone else went back to what they were doing.
My uncles managed to throw together a makeshift smoker yesterday in a rush, but it wasn't very pretty and wouldn't last very long. Their next task was digging out a hole and making a cellar to store the smoked meat in, along with any nuts and berries the scouts managed to forage out in the forest.
That's how the rest of the day went, with everyone working on what they were assigned. Taking breaks when they got tired but pushing through it to get what needed to be done, done. There wasn't another countdown or another wave of angry rabbits so that was good. The only thing that gave us a scare was when one of the scouts spotted a bear in the forest, which confirmed that there were predators in the woods. It was assumed there was, but it felt different having confirmation.
I ended up getting another increase in endurance from the hard work bringing it up to double digits. We also continued with an hour or two of 'training' which was really just mock fighting and getting comfortable with the weapons we were given. I was already getting intimate with the axe by swinging it for hours upon hours every day at trees.
Actually fighting with it was different than swinging it at a tree that didn't move and didn't fight back, but I didn't think what we were doing was going to help much when a horde of angry animals tries to maul us. Fighting a human who didn't know what they were doing wouldn't translate to feral wild animals. But at least it wouldn't hurt.
By lunch on the third day I was seriously getting sick of eating rabbit and so were a few other people. Outside of our normal work time, some of the Rangers got together and tried to convince my Grandfather that they should put a hunting party together to hunt the bear. My grandfather was reluctant because he didn't want anyone to get injured and a bear was a big step up from the rabbits that attacked previously.
They compromised when one brought up that they could start with a boar that they had found, and Granddad agreed that it was acceptable. Originally they only planned for the three rangers to go together and pelt the boar with arrows from high ground. After it was all planned out and confirmed with all the additions added, I found myself walking with a group of six into the woods where the boar was last spotted.
The group was composed of a variety of classes with two of the Rangers coming, one of them had the skill that could identify levels, we had the ice mage with us and the last three were warriors. Two with shields and the last one with a spear. It was a standard gaming party set up which I found funny. Three backliners who dealt damage from range, two frontliners to block and keep the enemy's attention, and the last warrior to protect the backline just in case something got through.
It didn't take much time to spot the boar after we started following the trail. One of the Rangers that came with us was my cousin Hal, who was an avid hunter, and took a tracking skill as one of his two skills.
"Before we do this we should probably tell each other what skills we have so we can plan around it." Alice, the ice mage, said.
"That sounds like a good idea. You guys already know that I have a tracking skill, and my other one is [Precision Shot]. It makes my arrow fly straighter and less affected by wind." Hal said.
"I have [Ice Bolt] which I can cast around five times before I run out of mana and the second skill I got was [Mana Shield]. I haven't used the mana shield yet so I don't know how sturdy it is or how large of an area it covers or how long it takes to cast... or how much mana it takes." Alice rambled on decreasing in volume when she realized that she didn't know much about her skill. By the end it was just mumbling that I barely caught coming out of her mouth.
"Ahem," Austin said clearing his throat, "I have [Piercing Strike] so it's easier for my spear to stab things and [Fortified Body] to help with defense and hold the line if something charges me."
Huh, he got the same skill I did. I did some testing with the skill earlier and the way it worked was pretty cool. It saturated my muscles and skin with mana so that I was resistant to attacks and it was harder to damage my skin. It still hurt to get hit and I could still bleed while it was active, but it was a nice bonus to my defense which was what I was looking for to begin with.
Sensing that it was my turn next, based on the clockwise circle we were going in, I spoke up, "I have [Power Strike] and [Fortified Body]." Both my skills were self-explanatory so I didn't go into much detail.
Jack, the other shielded warrior beside me, was next and he had [Sweeping Slash] and [Extended Blade] which both empowered his sword. Jack even said when he was testing them they could be used together, but the cost was exponentially high.
The last to speak was my cousin Kyle and he said, "You guys already know that I have [Ranger's Eye] and my second one is [Foraging Sense]. I really wanted to get [Beast Bond] with my second skill but it wasn't very practical because there was nothing that I could bond with. But if I find like an eagle or falcon or hawk or... or anything really, I'm definitely gonna take it next. You know how cool it would be to have a hawk as a bond that could fly ahead and scout for you. What if you get to see through its eyes like in Assassin's Creed!"
"Alright Kyle we get it, you're excited to get a pet bird." Hal cut him off before Kyle could go any further down the rabbit hole the enthusiastic teen would go.
Kyle grumbled a little about how Hal wouldn't get it because all he did was kill things hunting. It still surprised me that the two were brothers when they were so strikingly different. Hal was a stocky, muscular jock-looking guy with the blonde hair that most of my family has, while Kyle was a shorter, scrawny nerdy kid with dark brown hair that he got from his mother. Hal was the older of the two, in his late twenties while Kyle just turned twenty himself not too long ago.
Alice had the same blonde hair as most of the family did and she had it up in a tight ponytail for the occasion and was around the same age as Kyle. Jack was the only one who wasn't part of the Zalenski family. He was actually Alice's boyfriend who just so happened to be brought to the family dinner before this whole tutorial happened. It wasn't the first time that he was brought to a family event but they had only been together for a year or two. Could you imagine if it was your first time meeting your girlfriend's extended family and this shit show happened. I would be freaking out to go through this with what were essentially strangers.
Another thing that Jack had that stood out from the rest of us was the ginger hair that stuck out from his helmet. He was the only redhead of the faction unless you counted the strawberry blonde that a few of my family sported. Strangely enough, there was some reddish tint to my beard when in certain lighting but it would be a stretch to call it red.
Austin was last and he was one of my favorite cousins, and usually the one that I talked to during family gatherings. Jonathan was all well and good but he was almost a decade older than me. Austin and I grew up together, and we were the same age. If his parents had lived closer, we would have gone to school together. We had similar features which made it obvious we were related but different enough to know we weren't siblings. The only glaring difference was he was clean-shaven, while I had a full beard. He had never been able to grow a good one. It wasn't connected and was patchy in some spots.
Now that we had told each other what we were working with a plan was made. It was relatively simple; Jack and I would be the frontline with our shields keeping the boar at bay while Alice, Hal, and Kyle peppered it from a distance. That left Austin in the middle where he would act if the boar got through us and if it didn't, he would stab it with his spear from behind our shields.
With the plan established, we continued on our trek. Using the tracking skill made it a hundred times easier than without, and soon enough the snorting and huffing of a boar could be heard through the usual forest sounds of swaying branches and bird calls.
"Alright, let's do this guys!" Kyle said trying to pump us up.