Chapter 14: Trash collector?

Lacking a way to recreate more low-level potions and the need to save the one I had, the only recourse for soothing my bumps and bruises from today’s fight was a bath. I decided hot bath being the very ticket and kept both iron pots on the stove to heat some water. With a mid-size bucket, 2 iron pots full of hot water and my newfound soap, the bath was refreshing and just what I needed.

I had a lot of food items stored up in my still somewhat lacking inventory. With no oil at hand, I decided to activate my cooking skill, fry up potatoes with some meat with a touch of salt and lime. I finished the meal with berries – a bit of both kinds and felt a new touch of satisfaction. I was too tired to run today but I still decided to go for a walk with a dungeon torch in my hand – which, by the way, worked much better than my sacrificed shirt torch. After finishing my exercise and slash practice, I let the torch burn as I needed to figure out the length of time it would burn for. With light at hand, I made use of the notebook and pen I had foraged and started noting down some of my experiences. I also wanted to come up with some additional ideas to see if I could gain further skill from the same – some were lacking the raw material like tailoring and smithing and some were beyond my paltry knowledge like water wheel. I fell asleep with the torch still burning.

The 5th day morning was unusually hot, and it was already a sauna in the room this early. The torch seemed to have recently burnt out as I could still see the smoke which meant it could work for up to 12 hours. These were too important for survival later and I decided to get more of them from the dungeon if they had been replaced. I only had 3 more days of grace left including today and I was hoping to reach level 5 by the end of the period. For now, level 4 required 12500 Exp and I don’t know how many monsters I’ll have to kill. With my new cup of coffee in hand, I tried to decide if exploring more area vs dungeon, which was a better plan but with lack of any other information and no idea what the event might entail, increasing strength seemed like the best choice for now.

I went for a run, which ended up being a hot sweaty job and eventual walk, but I persisted and followed with the slash practice. Second round to forage formed up a tentative short-term routine. Again, I found the small but essential stuff lying or hidden in the shops around the novice village. Today I found another batch of pastries, another piece of rope, a box of nails and hammer. There weren’t many nails but who knows when they might end up being useful, so I stored everything carefully. I thought about using them for advancing carpenter skill then decided against it.

My inventory was bulging like a scavengers’ cart, but this was all I owned for now and it was all hard earned.

Inventory -

4 eggs, 7 pieces of bread (not dry), 8 medium sausages, 1190 mint leaves, 900 sweet berries, 20 small rocks, 3 tree logs, 1 new shirt, 1 worn out pants, 1 worn out pair of boots, 1 iron pot, 2 packet of matches, 1 rusty water canteen, tarp, 2 rope, 1 wolf fang, 1 wolf fur, 4 kg wolf meat, 29 dandelion flowers, 11 dandelion plants, 2 mint plants, 2 sweetberry bushes, 1.9 kg spinach, 5 spinach plants, 3 sweet potato roots, 64 apples (sweet and ripe), 1 apple tree, 1 monkey corpse, rabbit fur scraps, 4 L water, 1 L fresh water, rabbit meat scraps, 2 small basket, 7 pastries, 1 used soap, 1 insect repellant, 1 Swiss army knife, 1 kg salt bag (open), 4 rabbit corpse, 1 water proof notebook, 1 pen, 1 frying pan, 9 sachets panda biscuits, 8 common puffball mushrooms, 12 hedgehog mushrooms, 16.5 lime, 1 lime tree, 426 blueberries, 3 blueberry shrubs, 17 limestone rocks, 365 copper coins, 50 unburnt torches, 67 potatoes, 1 small crystal, a box of nails, hammer, countless dry branches.

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New boots were on my feet, Katana, and knife on the table. It looked like a lot, but it wasn’t worth much and won’t last long.

Footnote had not refreshed yet so there was nothing new to factor in. Plan dungeon was still on.

Yesterday, I had realized that I needed something substantial for breakfast and carry something solid for lunch as well. Grabbing a handful of berries to appease my hunger might end up hurting me in the long run. I ate 2 eggs 2 pieces of bread and an apple for my breakfast with a cup of mint tea. Then I made 2 sandwiches of sorts with bread, sausage, and spinach, stored them in small basket, and kept them in inventory. Since the inventory was keeping plants alive and meat fresh maybe it could also keep food warm. If this works, I could always grill all the meat and store it for emergencies. It hurt to use precious resources that I may never see again but staying alive and fit was rather a prerequisite.

I felt embarrassed that I had been storing corpses and avoiding butchering them after my traumatic experience. I will need to get to it at some point – to increase my skill level and meat, as wolf meat was running out. It also made me have a greater appreciation for loot drops vs real life resource gathering. I wish all monsters could turn themselves into neatly cut, store bought packaged meat upon death and have some mercy on my sensibilities.

Ignoring the rest of my domestic pending chores, I head out towards the dungeon. There is a lot to do and not enough time. Maybe there will be a downtime during the event to get on with the sorting and butchering etc. Ha!

I arrived at the dungeon much faster today owing to my increased agility stat and cautiously reached the lit part of the first-floor breezing through the darkness in no time. Everything was quiet. Too quiet. Does this mean once killed the dungeon monsters don’t respawn? Or was it because it had not been 24 hours yet? Leaving the mystery solving for later, I directly headed to the boss shack where I had seen the stairs going down. Finding that the torches had not been replenished disappointed me further.

I went down the stairs the eerie feeling and fear of the unknown reared its head yet again. Anyway, I was too damn tired of being fearful all the time, so I decided to just go for it and hope for the best. The stairs were dark the light from the floor above started to recede and it was hard to see the end of them. I had been using the torch I picked up from the dungeon I was saving the ones I earned for later, but the light barely lit up the next step and nothing further. After what felt like a long time, I arrived at the end and counted a total of 30 stair steps (helpful for return in case I had to run in a rush).

Explosion of light was so sudden it made me feel as if I had been reborn yet again in another world. There was a vast prairie in front of me with no end in sight, full of lush gently swaying grass with different flowers blooming as if planned to be a sort of a garden and occasional trees providing shade from the bright light that may or may not be the sun. It felt truly magical to see a vast new world existing in the middle of the mountain right below the dark and dingy goblin camp.

I don’t know what kind of monsters I would encounter here but one thing was sure – there was no place to hide so it will all be a head on battle. Gulp!