It was interesting that the wand’s description had been updated now that Nick knew more about its function. However, most of his attention was focused on contemplating the final item on the list. The cluster of question marks had to be referencing his sword. Come on. He frowned at the screen. It’s obviously a sword.
Responding to his thoughts, the description shifted, changing from “???” to “??? Sword.” He wasn’t sure if the System was genuinely trying to be helpful or if it was just fucking with him, although he supposed that it ultimately didn’t matter. Lending credence to Trell’s claims, the question marks suggested that the sword was special. It was also confirmation that the System wouldn’t automatically identify items that he found outside of reward chests, although he hoped to discover a means of doing so eventually.
All things considered, Nick had come a long way during his survival retreat on the Searing Isle. His attributes and skills were growing like a well-tended garden, and now he understood his physical attributes well enough to streamline his training going forward. He still needed to acquire at least one ability and ideally switch to a better class—although, to be fair, his Survivor trait had already saved his life on multiple occasions.
But Nick needed something more combat-oriented going forward, especially as he was having an easier time securing food and water as he became more familiar with living off the land. The only real downside would be giving up the reduced need to sleep. Even under ideal conditions, the trait gave him an extra two hours every night that he could use to plot and plan, which suited his inclinations perfectly. Not drowning quite so fast had proven its worth several times over as well, even if the benefits were somewhat specialized.
He decided that pondering his plans for his future growth would have to wait. Survivor or not, he was getting awfully hungry by this point. It was time to head into the forest to forage for berries. Then Nick would figure out which section of the woodlands the lemur tribe had relocated to and do his best to identify the dominant predator in the southern forest. He also needed to come up with a strategy to survive any future searstorms, beyond finding a shelter with a roof overhead, but he was already working out a few ideas related to the issue.
Nodding to himself, he left the obelisk and stepped onto the sandbar, enjoying the warm sunlight against his skin, ready to face the tutorial’s second phase.
His first stop was the berry patch a few miles to the north, which used to lie between the boundary of the beach and forest but was now right up against the island’s redrawn coastline. Even with his new and improved Foraging skill, it took Nick the better part of two hours to pick enough fruit to last him through the day. The tribe had scoured the surface layer clean, and the berries that he eventually found were wedged deep within the thorny brush.
After racking up a painful collection of scratches, he decided to use his sword to cut a hole in the side of the bushes to retrieve the fruit inside. A process that proved to be significantly more labor-intensive than he had hoped, but at least it kept his blood inside his body.
Nick doubted that it was worth coming back here to forage except as a last resort. The pickings were sure to be slim, even after waiting a few days for more berries to ripen. To make matters worse, all the coconut palms growing on the beach had been devoured by the rising sea. In addition to finding a sheltered location to shield him while he was sleeping, he needed to locate a reliable source of sustenance as soon as possible. At least he wasn’t in danger of running out of water anytime soon.
But that would have to wait until he understood what he was dealing with, now that he had been forced to explore the southern woodlands. He thought that the area might be controlled by something akin to a pack of wolves or wild dogs, judging from the paw prints he had found. Although he had enough information to make a rough guess, Nick knew that since he was standing on the surface of an alien world, the creatures in question could wind up being just about anything.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
He decided to start his search by heading back toward the area where he had heard the tribe in the distance, as their presence reduced the odds that anything dangerous was living in the trees. Once he found a likely spot, he intended to climb into the canopy and wait until the predatory beasts passed below, hopefully without them catching wind of his presence in the process.
He passed by the obelisk and began hiking east, cutting deeper inland this time to expand his mental map of the woodlands along the way. While he walked, Nick avoided a half-dozen komos that had been driven from the beach by the rising ocean. Thankfully, their optical camouflage didn’t work nearly as well in the heavily layered woodlands as it did along the sandy dunes and muddy streambanks. There wasn’t nearly as much direct sunlight beneath the canopy, and he could no longer rely on reflections, giving the lizards’ positions away.
He had suspected that the komos were getting bigger over time, but after seeing several up close, he was certain of it. It was as if the beasts were leveling up and training their stats, just like Nick was in the process of doing—which, for all he knew, was exactly what was happening.
He quickly fell in love with his new backpack as he hiked across the woodlands. Not having to carry heavy objects in the front pockets of his bathrobe wound up improving his balance almost as much as boosting his Dexterity. Additionally, it freed up room on his toolbelt for the items that he needed to be able to retrieve as quickly as possible.
Even more critically, Nick would have had a hard time carrying his sword around without owning a proper sheath to store it. But now he could arm himself with only a few seconds of effort. He was even able to fit a pair of spears in there as a backup. All in all, his new backpack was incredibly useful, and once he found a place to hole up for the night, he would start filling his pack to its maximum capacity while working out as an easy way to train his Strength.
Late in the afternoon, he caught his first glimpse of the beasts that had claimed this section of the forest as their territory. He had been seeing signs of the creatures’ presence for hours. Crisscross scratches on the trunks of trees, surrounded by lumps of rank feces studded with bones, moist enough that they must have been deposited sometime within the last few hours.
These markers, combined with the animals’ dog-like tracks, led Nick to believe that the beasts were either pack hunters or scavengers, possibly both. Judging by the depth of their tracks and the height of their claw marks, the beasts were more massive than mountain lions but smaller than bears. Definitely nothing that he would want to run into unprepared. He needed to learn more about the creatures without being discovered in the process.
Not long after, he found a trail with prints leading in both directions. It was clearly a central slice of the beasts’ territory and one they used frequently. Now that he knew he was in the right spot, Nick backtracked, walking over to a tree that he had spotted a few minutes earlier. A hearty specimen with broad branches that made for easy climbing.
After making sure that nothing was watching him, he climbed high into the branches and inspected the canopy for any unfriendly residents. He then wedged himself between the trunk and a forked branch and made himself as comfortable as he could. Which, as one might imagine, was not particularly comfortable.
Once he was secured in the canopy, Nick reached into his belt pouch and removed a lump of charcoal left over from his beachside barbeque. He ground the blackened chunks into fine powder between his palms, then rubbed it into his skin, hair, and clothing to mask his scent. Then Nick sat down and waited for the creatures to return, which he hoped would occur sometime within the next few hours; otherwise, he might need to rethink his strategy.
While he waited, he reviewed a selection of the tactics he had been developing to battle the komos and swordclaws, since he intended to make use of them soon. After picking a terrain and deciding how he would open the engagement, Nick cleared his mind and visualized how the creatures would move in response to various actions and how he could position himself to counter—an activity that he had dubbed “shadow boxing lite.”
Although he was just trying to kill time, he found his visualization to be surprisingly engaging. Before long, he had fully entered a state of flow, and the minutes sailed past without him being remotely aware of time’s passage.
Nick was halfway through a second imagined fight between sword and crab when his patience was finally rewarded. He was pulled out of his reverie when his ears picked up the sound of approaching animals. A series of high-pitched chattering yips, punctuated by an occasional growl. Judging by the rising volume of their cries, the creatures would pass directly beneath his tree sometime within the next five minutes.