Chapter 24: Fence building

I started running. It would take me at least one loop of the entire area available to me to make up the 5 km target set up by the system. After a km I broke into a jog and collected stones, then ran some more and collected branches…eventually the task listed as 5km run was complete and I was back in my yard huffing and puffing.

Without a break I decided to do squats first – which entailed me falling on my bum quite a few times before completing them and same with the push-ups. By the time I finished the daily task I was lying on the ground panting heavily and mentally cursing the system to put me through this ringer. I had been exercising but this routine stretched my paltry limits at one go.

[Daily task complete. Rewards - 1 new skill card, 100 system points and 1 silver]

[Host the life skills support shop is open. Would you like to check it?]

When I visualized the system page in my mind, I saw I have 2 grey tabs – one was the system home page with my pitiful system point balance (200), currency balance(15 silver), skills with levels and number of skill cards and skill points. The second tab just appeared as ‘store’ – this was just like the ‘online delivery services app’ on Earth with categories available to choose from. The payment could be via both system points and currency. 1 system point was equal to 1 gold coin since it was hard earned vs the meagre silver coins I had on hand.

The category I was interested in was ‘build’ – only a few options were active. The greyed-out options included building a white house! Mama mia! We are going to build a mega city seems like. The available option were –

1. Build the fence (250 meters enclosure) – 250 system points

2. Enhance the built fence (250 meters enclosure) – 100 system points

3. Build a wooden log cabin (50 meters) – 300 system points

4. Enhance a wooden log cabin (50 meters) – 100 system points

This meant that if I did most of the work first, I could use system points to finesse out the structure into a proper building.

I used the option b to enhance the build fence with my system points I had.

Voila, my fence was covered with a grey fog for 15 minutes and then emerged a newly built fence with proper corners and a professionally grooved gate, with a handle on both ends which could be secured using a wooden log. The gate was not 5 meters but was half a meter taller than the fence. The logs which had been uneven, were evened out and the space between them had magically filled up. For now, I was safe.

At this time the new chime sounded out

[New task – survive the first night of the event; Rewards – 2 skill points, 150 system points and 5 silver]

Before I could lose all day light, I decided to chop more trees from the perimeter. Keeping a clear area would go a long way for security, I didn’t need any animals attacking me from above the trees or hiding behind them. I will use these logs to set up a simple structure for a cabin and use my remaining 100 system points for getting it finished.

Cutting the trees was fast but digging the foundation and setting up logs into a 50-meter cabin at the center took effort. I had set up a few logs as a bed and some stones as a stove, using mud and stone to create a sort of a chimney to let out the smoke. I used the information from the videos I had watched in my previous life. Most difficult was roof, since I could only place the longer logs at the top to create an illusion of a roof and tie the tarp over it with my rope (which was recovered when the fence was finished by LSS). The door for now was left open as I ran out of ideas. It had taken me a while to get this structure put together and it was starting to get dark.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

I used option d from the Life skill system to enhance the wooden log cabin and this time the grey fog lasted 30 mins. After 30 minutes I had a bushcraft style wooden log cabin that I had seen in all those videos appeared in my view. I think the system took pity on me and gave me a door (with a latch) and a glass less window as well. Stove and bed had been smoothened out but my roof was secure, except my tarp didn’t return to my inventory so I guess it had been used up. Roof was flat enough that If I could put together a ladder, I could climb up for an area inspection.

I was exhausted and hungry and happy. I decided that if I get any minions from the system, I am going to make them call me ‘My Lord’ I had my own territory now after all. I set the wolf fur on the bed in the cabin and started fire in the stove – time to celebrate my housewarming.

With my frying pan set on the stove, I activated my cooking skill and started BBQing the mutton shoulder. I set up one piece of wood as my official chopping board and cut out some cabbage, onions and chives and created a salad using salt and onion. It was a very satisfying meal. If I could create my YouTube channel, I would certainly garner enough attention for a steady subscriber base.

After the meal I filled all my bottles with the water at the stream – it still showed up as water in the inventory and not as ‘fresh’ water. I set up the iron pot to boil the water to see if I could change its status – it didn’t. I had been drinking water from the bottle today, but I knew it wasn’t safe and boiling water is essential.

I had torches (from the dungeon) so I lit up one and buried it on the ground. I could use the fire for light, but it was still too soon to stop working.

I took out the corpses in my inventory and started with project increase butchering skill. After a thought I decided to take the torch and this stink outside of my cabin. A couple of excruciating hours and gruesome work later, my butchering skill finally reached basic+ level.

2 rabbits gave me scrap meat (thanks to my poor skills) and with some experience and practice, 2 rabbits finally game me decent pieces that could be grilled. I went outside the fence gate and a distance away to dig the monkey corpse – it was stinking, and I didn’t want to put it in my inventory again. This corpse had been used for practicing skill and was unusable.

As I was digging a hole, I sensed danger coming from the front. Even with the torch it was too dark to make out the cause of this danger. I cursed in my heart but got the Katana ready – what else could I do. I held the burning torch in front to use fire as the first attack. Suddenly I could sense something running at a fast pace towards me, as if getting ready to head butt me (seriously! Could these animals learn some new skills, or not.)

Light from torch showed me that it was a wild boar, and I was too late to raise an attack. I took a hit on my thighs and stumbled, just about managing to not fall. Before it could hit me again the fire was in its face and the katana was slashing towards its neck. Bloodied boar was in pain but before it could make any loud noise, I cut of its neck completely killing it. To my surprise the corpse disintegrated into silver particles, just like in the dungeon.

Notification

“Killed wild boar (level 2) exp 250”

Loot – 1 dagger (level 2), 2kg boar meat tenderloin, 2L boar blood, 10 copper coins (skill loot – 2 carrots)

Thankfully it was a low-level boar. But is there a dungeon nearby? I thought only dungeon monsters gave out loot. It was all very confusing, considering I had just finished butchering animal corpses. It made me realize that making a fence was the best decision – this area is not as safe as it seemed during the daytime or maybe it was the fragrance of the grilled meat or the blood from butchering animals that had drawn this boar here.

With the work for the day done, I meditated for a few hours before deciding to check on the chat channels and understand the situation with the rest of the participants. I also wanted to explore other options within the two systems, which I had pushed to the night.