Having embarrassed himself already four times now Arakvili was concerned that maybe the sickle wasn't even going to cut it. The grass was too tough, no matter how he tried to cut it, it simply recoiled or chipped the old sickle. Which in honesty wasn't unexpected, however it was unfortunate.

Left with a single option Arakvili looked at the poor, old, ancient sickle in his hand. Feeling the sensation of the ethereal muscle once more.

Although he wasn't too versed in fiction he knew enough to assume that the aura bestowed on him was capable of boosting the abilities of the sickle.

Focusing on it, the sickle sooner began glowing gold as the air around it seemed to burn with a brim of thunderous yellow, the same as his arm as his grip tensed on the tool. Grabbing a chunk of the grass Arakvili drew back the scythe as he closed his eyes, forcing every last bit of aura he could into the very blade of the tool, he swung!

Yet unlike before, he was shocked as instead of the expected recoil his arm swung freely, bounding back again his shoulder where it was stopped, yet the force of the swing didn't disappear. He tumbled over onto the ground as the grass he had grabbed fell on him.

Getting up and looking at the damage caused, it was way more effective than expected. Rather than the small tuft of grass he had grabbed, nearly all of the tall grass in a meters range around him had been cleaved down.

At least something that brought joy. Arakvili burst up and collected the grass, quickly sneaking back inside and running up to the rooftop.

At least now he had time to look around the area as despite having been up here, he didn't once have the time to properly look around.

Though he had already seen this, the front of the tower had a menial clearing before a dense forest, however looking back was a completely different sight. Maybe some thirty or forty meters from behind the tower across the edge of the forest was a running river. It went on wild as some minor waterfalls could be seen on the left with jagged rocks piercing out even above the tall grass. However what was on the opposite side seemed completely alien.

Across the river, though far, there rose tall stone walls and peaks. Like a canyon raised above ground it was covered in sand and looked overall incredibly sad, with dead trees covering the cliff sides that could be seen!

[‘Rocky River’ added to Biomes]

[‘Arid Canyons’ added to Biomes]

“ Atmjn, ”

However, settling back down and sitting beside the large batch of tall grass he had gathered, Arakvili summoned the system and entered in to craft the woven basket. Yet what followed was outside his wildest guess so far, by being more normal than anticipated.

Instead of the system eating up the materials and giving back the finished item eventually, or perhaps weaving it magically itself. It rather took control of his body and executed the task itself.

Now sitting there Arakvili was for the first time weaving anything. The system, though his body worked well, though somewhat sluggishly. As if someone with the understanding and knowledge of how to do something, but not the physical ability to do so.

That's how the next 5 hours were spent, as the sun swung from one side of the tower to the other, just as it had when the first day had started. However now infront of him was a finished, though drying basket. His fingers hurt a little and felt numb as the the movements executed were beyond any task they had executed in years. Not to mention the fact that the pulsing sense of hunger kept Arakvili sprawling on the floor. There was nothing he could have, nor was he ready to go out there and risk encountering either beast…

‘Unless… That cleaver is practically a longsword. If i put all my aura into a strike could I kill either of those things? No- No I couldn't… The boar was too massive, I dont know if I could even reach it, the lizard too, its too fast and massive. Besides, they've been here for longer. Why wouldn't they also have Aura or something else…’

Arakvili could only lament his powerlessness, despite being the strongest human in this world as far as he was concerned. He was still Nothing.

Sliding downstairs to look at what else may happen to be of use in the first floor Arakvili opened the door to let in some light. Looking back;

“ AAH! ”

Stomp

He was shocked, terrified and bamboozled even. A golden light pierced through the room as it shone, with the crashing of his foot sounding out against the stone floor as the thing crunched and slurged. Next to him was formerly a vile thing. A gigantic hunched rat which was dragging along a dead crow. It had its head bitten off, likely captured by the rat itself.

Now though it was nothing more than a corpse on the floor together with its former prey, both heads missing. The Stain was a bit gnarly but Arakvili couldn't help but pick up both as he looked around the room with his heart still sunk low…

[‘Hunchback Rat’ Added to Bestiary]

Would this really be his meal? Is this what he has to chew on? The dark room though a box filled mess, he went over and put the corpse of the rat on a box he would use as a table for now. Opening one of the boxes closer to the furnace. No it was more like a force after getting closer to it.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Inside the box though there wasn't anything except a ton of broken knives. Each seems broken in its unique way, however the quantity of iron shrapnel may be useful. It was what he needed.

Looking into the next box it brought better boons. There was a small pot and pan as well as a variety of cooking utensils placed into a bucket with a cloth in it.

He found what he needed, he took the pot and bucket, setting out the cooking utensils beside the furnace with the pot hung onto 2 hooks inside the furnace.

Rushing upstairs Arakvili grabbed the Cleaver before dashing outside again. He wanted to eat damn badly as he hadn't had a droplet of anything edible in nearly 2 days.

Rushing through the clearing behind the tower it was shockingly easy. Although Arakvili expected the tall grass to get in the way and hide pits and drops and puddles, the land was shockingly flat.

Soon then as he ran the sound of water running became clearer and louder. Arakvili emerged from the forest edges clearing at a small rivercliff, though only about a foot tall. There was a shockingly nice side to the river as there was even a small settling of sand on the mainly rocky river bottom. However there of course were animals here too.

Tiny catfish were just chilling on the sand beside the river, some of them just lying there flat while others with clawed fins did a wormlike motion to shrug themselves forward as they moved around on the shore.

[‘Pygmy Sandroamer Catfish’ added to bestiary]

Arakvili eyed the small catfish for a little while longer but broke focus soon after, now wasn't the time to be wasting on fucked up fish. He got down by the side of the river and hopped onto some larger and flatter rocks to get further in to the water. Arakvili drank and got a bucket full of water.

Hopping back across the rocks to the shore the catfish were mainly still just chilling, while two of them had heaved themselves back into the water and flowed off somewhere…

“ Croak ”

How could he give up this chance? Arakvili pierced the head of one of the catfish with the tip of the cleaver and flipped it into the bucket, before beginning his dash back to the tower.

He felt a little bad that the organism had to go like this but what could he do, this is what he would need to be doing from now on.

As he got back to the tower, Arakvili quickly assembled his plan. Looking into the last box he hadn't checked, he found what he predicted. There were some cut logs in the box as well as wool and string, along with some cloths. However the most important item was a flint and steel.

Pouring some water into the pot, Arakvili put some logs into the furnace and a piece of wool. Soon after a bit of trial and error lightning it with the assistance of the flint and steel. This may have been the only thing here he was good at as he had seen the process many times with his grandmother.

Now though came the hard part. Arakvili took both the rat corpse and catfish. Both seemed a bit fat, however he didn't really know where to begin. He had only prepared already fileted fish and never touched a rat in any way until now…

Left with little options, he took a few of the knife shrapnels from the far box and got to work. The cleaver was too massive for this job, however he had a rough outline for what needed to be done. Starting he chopped off the head of the catfish with a blow of his hand, attempting to use only about half of the aura he could summon. After which, the preparation process began…

. . .

Nearly fourteen minutes later, the water in the pot was boiling and popping as only some half of it remained in the pot, most having already evaporated. Arakvili was worriedly working quickly for the fish he had already finished cutting up a while ago. Although wasteful he didn't know how to prepare organs or if there was anything more that needed to be done. As for the chunk of meat that was the rat, it went by a little easier.

Its skin and fur came off rather easily and its head was already gone, its limbs were also quite fat so only removing its claws was necessary. Thankfully too except for its stomach and liver the rest of its organs were quite small.

At this point, although Arakvili was covered in blood til his elbows with some cuts of the shrapnels he had to use, he had a full meal boiling in the pot. He just hoped that it was as edible as it smelled. The aroma from the pot was certainly dubious as it had an earthy and salty scent to it, but as well as that a sour odor came from it…

While the pot was cooking Arakvili washed off himself as much as could be done with the remaining bit of water in the bucket for the day, before retreating inside and locking the door.

Now while the furnace burned the first floor was right enough on its own. And there would come the undead as well as the sun had breached the horizon. Though he had already made up his mind on this for another reason.

He promised to himself that tomorrow, he would go out and explore the surrounding forest, taking with him the cleaver and basket, in search of anything! But for now he could only enjoy the questionable soup he had made.

Taking the pot off the hooks with the assistance of a few cloths he found together with the firewood, the steel handles of the pot still felt hot as hell but he didn't have a choice. He still recoiled once he put the pot down.

It would be time to dig in.

After cleaning up after himself, Arkvili set the cooking utensils in order and covered them with some cloth. The rest however had stayed the same, as the fire in the forge crackled away and the gloom of the room returned as it slowly dimmed.

Taking a two pronged fork and the pot upstairs to the table, Arakvili finally got to eat. And to him? The meal wasn’t so bad. Perhaps that was the hunger accumulated over 2 days speaking, but it really was a decent meal. Certainly it started to feel putrid near the end. Not a single vegetable or spice in the soup, just a broth of meat. At least the flavors and texture of the meat were fine.

The catfish had chewy and salty flavor, while the rats meat was tender and a little sour, but after a while the taste turned into something more earthy, like the smell of mud after rain.

‘ Damn it… I feel like a freak enjoying this… ’

Arakvili fell over onto the table thinking about what he had consumed…

‘ I need to get fruits as soon as possible. I swear, tomorrow! I'm going to get out there! ’

And even then? The only thing he had to show for this was himself smiling tucked into bed like a larva.