Chapter 6

Orion - Day 2 of Landing

“Wait, WHAT?!” The young girl couldn’t believe it. Both Cass and the new guy couldn’t be more excited for more arrivals, not realizing the implication. The new guy didn’t sense any time pass from the moment the plane entered the event to when he arrived on these strange shores which meant that whatever was warping us here was trickling survivors in one by one, bending space and time. Given that all of us here so far were not random people selected but all aboard the same plane, it would follow that eventually all the other passengers would show up.

It was hard enough to shelter and feed one person out here in the wilderness. It’s going to be impossible to do so with... how many people were on that plane? I had dark thoughts and knew I shouldn’t feel this way, but deep inside, I hoped there weren’t more survivors. What am I thinking? That’s an awful thought to have. But what if some of them have allergies? What if they are pregnant? What if some have asthma or diabetes? What if they are vegan and can’t eat shellfish? I had to take care of Cass, that’s it. If push came to shove, I would... no, that’s an awful thing to think about.

“Explain, Orion,” Brenda, I think her name was Brenda, said.

“This new guy washed up on shore a day after we did. He’s only partly wet, but it doesn’t look like he’s been out at sea, and even if he had been, there’s no way he can just magically survive out there for an entire day. We both assumed the waves washed us here immediately after the plane crash in the ocean. I think... we are all trickling in somehow... one by one,” I guessed.

“What?” Brenda didn’t follow at all.

“Oh dude, that totally makes sense. It’s like that show Lost or Survivor. We’re isekai’d here by the game system, and it’s dropping us in Hunger Games style on an island to survive,” the new guy theorized.

Despite how utterly ridiculous and stupid that sounded, I found myself somewhat believing some of what the new guy said to be plausible. The rules were being thrown out. We were definitely in a different world, at least with the night sky yesterday showing us that, not to mention the stuff in my pocket dimension palms. I had to go on the assumption that the rules of time and space were being bent somehow unless the new guy rode here on a dolphin or whale.

“Awesome!” Cass said, wanting to agree with the new guy. “Rye, can you teach me how to do that card trick now?”

“Cass... where did you find those black rocks?” I asked him, ignoring his question.

“They were on the walls from the cliff from yesterday, you remember? I brought them while you were sleeping,” Cass said.

“Let’s slow down. Orion, can you explain?” Brenda asked.

“Brenda, we don’t have time to talk. We wasted too much time yesterday. We should be building a shelter. We need an axe to chop down trees, and we need pots to boil water in,” I said.

“It’s Bianca. I learned your name O-RI-ON, the least you can do is learn mine.” Bianca had her hands on her hips.

“I’m sorry,” I had already forgotten it, slipped, and pressed on. “Your golem, can it... chop wood?”

“No, it just tries to headbutt the tree or scratch it,” Bianca said.

“Show me your abilities,” I requested.

There was envy among the cardless as the two people with cards discussed their abilities. Again, Cass kept bugging me so often and interrupting my conversation with the girl with the golem. The golem had a stockpile and gathering system, which could make making a shelter that much easier.

“We can build something big by the beach, then when new people arrive, they can see us,” Bianca suggested.

“We need to build by fresh water,” I said. “Usually, villages are formed by some fresh water source like a river or lake.”

“Village? Aren't you thinking a bit too far here?” the girl with the golem asked.

“We might be a village by the time all the new survivors pop in,” I said. “Short term, it might be better to build here, but we need to think beyond that. We need fresh water to drink and wash with.”

“I think there’s a river near the stream in the woods. We just have to follow the stream up the hills, and it’ll lead there,” Cass said.

“Dude, what about the other survivors? How will they find us?” the new guy asked.

“We’ll have to leave someone here,” I said.

We all looked at the new guy.

“What? No way. I want to go level,” the new guy protested.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I can stay,” Cass volunteered.

“We aren’t letting a little kid stay here,” I said.

“Cass is really smart for his age, and we might need Alex’s manpower,” the girl with the golem suggested.

“I’m not letting my kid brother stay here by himself,” I said.

“So I get the short end of the stick while you guys level up?” The new guy looked pissed.

“Level up? What the hell are you talking about---”

“QUIET! Listen, I have the builder golem. So I decide,” the girl with the golem said. “We’ll all stay here.”

“But water,” I retorted.

“We need to build an outpost here anyway. We’ll build a shelter here good for ten or so people. Once we have more people and more manpower, we can simply move to water. For now, we can bring the water to us,” Bianca said.

The girl put her foot down, and I didn’t want to argue. Truthfully, it was a better plan and made use of all our manpower. I relented and agreed. The first thing we did was make an axe for Slate. Bianca, as she told me now, repeatedly showed me how she designated resources for Slate to harvest.

When it came to bushes, Slate had no problem stripping branches and tearing off leaves easily and carrying piles of flat leaves to the stockpile. When it came to standing trees, however, it either headbutted the trunk or just peppered it with one of its pointy fingers. I had Cass go out and gather useful rocks, reminding him constantly not to venture too far while Alex gathered mud.

When Cass returned with a flat, thick pancake-shaped gray rock, we formed it into a wedge blade by smashing the ends of it into another rock. Bianca came over and ordered Slate to finish sharpening the edge as she threw on a makeshift Axe card in her work orders for Slate. When both edges of the blade were decently sharp, I gathered the blade and used a club of a tree branch to finish the axe. Slate watched carefully as I wedged the plate into the branch, hammering it with another rock into one side of the branch's ends. Slate took over as I got tired, mimicking my hammering, and made a hole right through the branch, resembling a giant wooden sewing needle head. With the hole in place, I wedged the stone axe head into the hole and then tied it in a cross pattern using strings braided from vines and other plant fibers. The axe formed a blue light around it and melded, and my Crafting card leveled up to 2, spawning a new card.

Simple Stone Axe

Quality F

20% more effective against Wood

With a new axe in hand, Bianca ordered Slate to take down some trees she designated. The first tree was a mere sapling, and Slate attacked the tree’s trunk using the same hammering motion with the blunt end of the axe instead of the axe head itself. I facepalmed and showed him the right way to do it. The four of us stood and watched the golem cleaving the trunk, and in no time, it started teetering... towards us. We screamed and ran, and the tree fell on the unconcerned golem, breaking the fallen tree’s fall before it plopped on the ground next to it. With the first tree down, Bianca ordered Slate to work on more trees, wisely at a long distance away from us, while we worked on the mud that Alex brought.

The three adults gathered around the beach to make bowls and pots with the mud. With her pottery skills honed from art class, Bianca was the most adept at doing it, and her mud pots came out the best. We threw Bianca’s pot on the fire first which I fed into a blistering fury with my Firewielder skill. When it was fired through and hardened, Bianca then revealed to us her newly acquired Pottery skill card. We all congratulated her, but both Alex and Cass were still annoyed neither had a class yet or any connection to the card system that both Bianca and I took advantage of. Alex’s pots were next, and despite them not turning out bad, he still shook his head as he told us he never met the hooded card dealer. My pots were last, and one had cracked during the process, but I had still managed to get the Pottery skill. The second one turned out well but was lopsided, looking like the right side of the belly and lip was melting.

All in all, we had seven pots in total, and Bianca and Cass went to a stream they knew to gather fresh water using two of the pots. It was midday, and we were growing hungry, so while they gathered water, I would gather more of those mollusks by the beach while Alex went to clean the mud off him. I carried a pot to the rocky coast down the beach and foraged some of the oysters. I placed a dozen into the pot after cleaning them and added some kelp I found as well. Looking out into the ocean, I saw silvery shoals of fish that a bluebird was hovering above monitoring. It gave me ideas for the future. I also would need to harvest some seawater to make salt but there was so much to do already. Walking back to the campfire, the crew was boiling the water they had fetched from the stream.

Bianca waved, which I ignored, and I placed the pot of kelp and oysters near the fire.

“What’s that?” Bianca asked.

“Our lunch,” I said.

“You can eat those things?” Alex gulped.

“Yeah, they are pretty decent.”

“We had them yesterday. They were great,” Cass said.

I had to figure out our food situation; we couldn’t eat oysters every day. The crabs don’t reliably show up on the beach when I want them to. I would have to check the forest for forage and maybe try to make a fishing rod. There were mushrooms, and some unripe fruits, and there had to be some animals. Not to mention, more people were coming. Pouring some freshly boiled water into my pot of oysters/mussel creatures, I placed my pot of forage into the fire and watched as it boiled. All four of us looked famished with our half-day of hard work and waited patiently as the mollusks in the pot opened up to show their tender meat and release their liquor into the soup.

When it cooled, we picked out the shellfish like mussels and picked off the meat from the shell with our hands. The liquor and the kelp gave it a natural saltiness and umami without needing seasoning. It could use some herbs and butter, though. I would need to forage for herbs in the forest. Alex, who looked a bit squeamish about seafood, tried it, and it turns out hunger is the best seasoning for any food. He quickly got over it and ate three more.

When it was done, we saved the shells. Who knows if they could come in handy. I drank the soup that was left in the pot and checked my card.

Rock Clam Broth - D

Quality F

Clam Shell: Remove Chill for 1 hour

I guess that adding the kelp upgraded the dish from an F to a D with a longer duration of the buff. The juice I made from the Rock Clam was more flavorful since I had more of them in the pot.

With food and water in our bellies, it was time to make a shelter before the sun set on the horizon.