[Congratulations! You survived the night! Welcome to a new day in the afterlife. As with all Norse afterlives, you spent all day fighting, pillaging, and plundering. Some lived, and some died. But all those lives lost are returned, to pillage and plunder again until the Ragnarok decides to come and create the cycle again.]
[Congratulations! You have reached a survival streak! For five days you have managed to live throughout your adventures! You will be rewarded with a perk fragment!]
[Warning! This boon is transferable to any other Chosen that may happen to end your streak!]
I was too startled by newness to throw a fit at the abrupt blue screen wakeup. Chosen, so that was the terminology for players. It made sense based on the way we were recruited. But this survival streak was something new and brought prizes! Perk fragment? The thought triggered a command.
[Perk Fragments: 3]
[Claim Perk? - Y/N]
Already at three? And the claim button was grayed out. I must not have had enough yet. Why did I have three? Transferable to other Chosen. I must have taken them from the cannibal! Maybe that's why he was still chasing me! Is that why he was living in the middle of nowhere? Trying to farm his days into perks? I would have to accept that for truth, it made his weird behavior make a little sense. And I never considered anyone as being senseless. People may be ill-advised or make poor decisions, but it was truly rare to do things senselessly. There was always a motivation beneath choices people made.
Before I was able to get off the floor of my hut, the world hitched, stumbled and stopped. The air cracked, hissed, popped and sizzled with static.
“Oh, this is truly sad,” A very smug voice said from the doorway of my hut. “To think such a civilized and sophisticated individual has been brought down so low.”
I knew he didn’t mean it, he would never think of me as civilized and sophisticated. Loki snapped his fingers, so I was in an idle position and facing him.
If I wasn’t frozen, I don’t think I could have stopped myself from a violent outburst and bout of rolling on the floor laughter. Instead, I made a mental choking noise as my thoughts ground down.
“What… What are you wearing?” This time his douche-guise was quite left field.
“It is the height of fashion within certain circles, let me assure you.” He said indignantly and raised the hoodie up to cover his golden locks. It was a onesie, an animal onesie, in the guise of a horse. It was brilliantly pink, however, belaying any sad attempt at realism. It even had an extra few legs sewn to it to fit his normal eight-legged steed motif.
“Why do your horses always have eight legs?”
“My favorite child.” He replied tersely, brooking no negotiation or further conversation along that line. “Berserk,” he said simply as he cracked open my rune-code-verse. “Oh, I see, the System was not anticipating the need to compensate for the power levels of that skill.” He rambled as he tinkered with my innards. “I will fix that with the next update. That must be because it is one of the Foundation Skills.”
He said it in such a way I knew it was serious business, like capital letter Serious Business.
“It is one of the foundation skills in the Norse lifestyle,” he continued as he zipped up the air holding my rune-code. “Sure,” he glanced around at my hut. “This stuff was important, survival, gathering, and whatnot. But it was not what made the Norse, well Norse. It is not foundationally Viking.” He let out a long suffering sigh as he looked down at the bottom of his onesies feetsies, they were filthy. “So rustic out here…”
“Well… it is the wilderness…” I muttered.
“Here, I will give you this for your small bug discovery.” He snapped his fingers and with a snap of static a parchment appeared in one hand. He held it out to me. “Why do you not go find some… civilization.” I didn’t take it.
“Can’t move,” I let him know.
“Oh, oh yes. I find it is much better to deal with humans when they do not move, they tend to do self-destructive things in my presence when they can move. Like touch me.” He gingerly took two fingers, with a look like he was picking up a dead roach and opened my shirt enough to stuff the map into it.
“There you go, enjoy. And keep up the good work.” He put an emphasis on good that made me think he wasn’t being complementary. He snapped his fingers and vanished. A moment after he was gone, the world resumed and I crashed to the ground, somehow face first.
At the bottom of my hut, directly in front of my face was a small hole. A tiny little nose was poking out and flickering in the air. I had discovered a burrow in the bottom of my hut, with a little Pest face staring at me. I had wondered where he had stashed all his goods. That would also explain the nice soft floor I was laying on, his burrowing supplying freshly fluffed dirt.
I muttered about annoying gods and got to my feet. Not before booping an annoyed Pest on the snoot though. I brushed myself off the best I could as I exited my little hut. The dawn was creeping up to greet the day. It seemed a pleasant day, still no sign of rain or ill-weather. I’m not sure if that was a missing game mechanic, or just luck of the weather though.
I removed the map from my shirt and spread it open on my drying rock. As soon as I had it open and I was getting a look at it, it exploded into a poof of ash or dust and disintegrated. Being surprised by the conflagration I, of course, inhaled some of it and went ahead to have a violent coughing fit.
“Mother fucker!” I shouted at the sky as tears cut down the debris covering my face. “What the hell kind of prank ass mechanic was that?!” Stupid trickster god. My notification light was blinking at me.
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Cartography skill!]
Well, maybe it was only half a prank. I brought up the skill information.
[Cartography]
Unlock Conditions - Review a map.
[lvl 1] - You are able to use the Map function.
[lvl 3] - You are able to create copies of your map for others.
[lvl 6] - You are able to create even more informative maps providing detailed analysis of locations and beasts within the places you know of.
[lvl 9] - You can absorb information about locations and add them to your map with complete accuracy without needing to visit those locations yourself. THERE'S NO MAP FOR YOU TO FOLLOW AND TAKE YOUR JOURNEY. YOU ARE THE MAPMAKER!
This seemed a fantastic addition to my skills. And unlocking a map function?!
“Map!” I quickly spat out.
My view was suddenly dominated by a blue screen with fine white lines on it. It kind of looked like a schematic drawing with the color scheme, but focusing on the lines brought them closer to my vision and a X marked a certain spot. Lines surrounded the X in the shape of a large curvy Y. I realized the X was my location and the large Y were the rivers surrounding me. In tiny letters next to the prongs of the Y were written clear river, muddy river, and joined river. It looked like everywhere I had traveled were shown. Little notations made at spots I had found interesting. The log bridge, the copse of trees I had battled Urkel, the half-buried boat down river even. Zooming out I could see far to the north, through some blank space, was another section of map revealed. It was the location I had entered the tower, it had a swatch of revealed land from the point I entered the tower until the location I died in the creek. It even had notations at Urkel’s deer blind camp and where I had perished.
An excellent utility. I dismissed the map and grinned wickedly into the air.
“Thank you, benevolent Loki!” I yelled at the sky.
Seeing the edge of the tower brought an odd feeling to me and I stared at the sky for a moment longer, trying to make out the skybox. It was so crazy that I was inside a building. This place was massive, a whole world. And this was only a single floor! Mind blowing. Sometimes it struck me just how odd this situation was. That of course turned my thoughts to my family. I missed them. I wondered how my sons were doing at college. And how my wife and daughter were managing everything. It had been, what, a week since my life was stolen in a freak accident? I thought my luck was supposedly good. How could such a freak thing kill me if I was so lucky. Unless it wasn’t a complete accident. Maybe some force has helped my fate along. I actually didn’t remember that rake being sharp and broken previous to it having stabbed me though the chest. I decided to keep that in the back of my mind, but not dwell on it now. I wasn’t powerful enough to do anything about it. Yet.
Now it was time to tend to last-nights unfinished chores. I planned on slaughtering the bunny and finishing dividing up the deer. But first I would need something to do with the meat. It wouldn’t last long as it was. I could put it in the river to keep it cool, but without having something to wrap it in, it would just waterlog and get eaten by enterprising fish. The only other idea I had was to smoke it. I took my axe into the forest and found myself a couple of victims.
First, I hunted down a dead tree I had discovered while leaving on my hunt and turned that into firewood. Between my Logger and Woodworking skill I made short work of the log. It seemed like they synergized, giving me an unlisted benefit of some sort and the log turned to firewood relatively quickly. It took longer to transport the wood to camp by the armful. Which with my new Strength was quite a bit.
Pest ranged with me a few times, sniffing at my trail, until he got distracted by something in the woods and was off to conduct ‘market research’, as he called it. I’m not sure what sort of market he was in, but it must have had very few customers out here.
Next, I hunted down some stout limbs out of a living tree, about a wrist thick. I collected five portions of these about five feet long each. I also collected half a dozen or so that were only thumb thick.
Dragging these back to camp I started construction on a meat spit. I put two of the limbs into the earth on either side of my camp fire and made an upside down V. I connected the top of the V where the logs came together with some twine and added a cross beam there. Since I didn’t have a metal rod, I had to make the cross beam high. I got the fire burning to a nice mellow degree and went about butchering the carcasses.
Some of the meat I wrapped with twine and suspended it from the cross beam, others I skewered with the smaller limbs and set along the edge of the fire, leaning against the crossbeam on the spit. The rabbit got skewered as well.
Both skins went gross side up on my drying rock. I put rocks on the outer edges to help hold it open. While I worked, I made a neat stack of bones. I would save each one until I knew I couldn’t make use of it. The antlers from the buck were small, with only four points each. I wasn’t quite sure what I’d do with them yet, but figured the points could at least make a spear tip or some sort of evil looking club spike.
The remains that I had no use or idea what to do with went into the river.
I didn’t unlock a schematic for my crude spit, so it must have been too basic for even the System to deal with, but as the meat slowly cooked, it sure smelled to be working. I put the little baby rabbits next to the fireplace, and by the time I was done cleaning myself up, one had already disappeared. I hope it was Pest and not something else. As the thought went through my head, maybe it was time to consider defenses. I had to prepare for Urkel as well. I stretched, and something to do about bedding would be nice. I glanced at the deerskin. Maybe after that was dried out, I could use it as a bed.
After a morning's effort I turned the rest of the large fallen tree into a pile of rough lumber and re-cleared my camp. The meat kept cooking slowly the entire time. I occasionally fed the fire to keep a steady roast on it. I snacked on some of it during a break and it was delicious. I kept cooking it, however, wanting to dry it out as much as I could. Less moisture meant less chance for bacteria and mold to grow, right?
Looking at my poor fence line of discarded brush, which I had scavenged a decent portion of for feeding the fire, I wanted to build something more secure. I didn’t have enough immediate lumber to build a real fence, however, so that meant I needed to fell more trees. I went back from the fence line another fifteen feet or so and started systematically clearing the space from clear river to muddy river. I ended up felling a dozen smaller trees and a few of the larger trees. I managed to drop them further into the forest and not on my fresh constructions.
[Congratulations! Logger has increased to Level 2!]
I gained a skill level in Logger by dropping the trees, I still had a hard time figuring out what granted good experience and what didn’t. I could have tracked it better, honestly, but I never was one that could keep a good record of those sorts of gains.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
The area south of the clearing I made now consisted of a half-dozen trees making up my quasi-fence line and a couple of apple trees on my little camp peninsula, one in the center and one on the tip where the rivers converged. A third apple tree was doing the double duty of being part of the fence and supplying sustenance.
I spent the remainder of the day making more lumber out of the new trees and finishing up the meat. I lost a few pieces of it to the fire as some of my twine snapped and released their bounty. But a majority of the dried meat was now suspended from my huts roof.
I also went through the dried plants that the cannibal had with him at his hut and on him at our last fight. They just looked like weeds to me and smelled vaguely herby. The only one I could easily identify was rosemary. But the others were foreign. I tried to chew on one that had yellow flowers and smelled faintly floral. It triggered a new skill, which should have been obvious to me, but I still wasn't using my gamer mind to the fullest, I guess.
[Herbalist]
Unlock Conditions - Test a herb.
[lvl 1] - You can identify common herbs and their common uses.
[lvl 3] - You can identify uncommon herbs, their common uses, and spot them easier in the wild.
[lvl 6] - You can identify rare herbs, their common uses, and spot them easier in the wild.
[lvl 9] - You know all details about all natural herbs and what they can do, as well as being able to sense their exact location from you within a large range. BE CAREFUL OF THE VENOMOUS TENTACULA, IT'S TEETHING!
Instantly I knew I was chewing on St John's-Wort. The knowledge was just available to me, like I had always known. I instantly recalled it being a common ingredient for potions and balms in various media throughout my life. I remembered a historically accurate medieval game using it for potions, as well as some MMOs and books. And it was also one of those buzzword herbs in the grocery store's hippy aisle.
It didn’t taste horrible. Just herby. Go figure. I wondered if I could make a potion or tea out of it for some benefits. How would I boil water? I had an idea, from a kindergarten project. Hot stone soup. Head up the stone and put it in the water container. I could maybe make a wood bowl.
There were also some stalks of lavender, which I scorned myself a little for missing. It was an obvious sort of flower, but it was dried and not its normal purple color, more towards a gray. Another plant was yarrow, this one I was unfamiliar with previously, but now I knew it could be in a tea to treat stomach issues or as a skin poultice for rashes.
This skill was a fount for knowledge, it was the first skill I gained that helped me assemble the knowledge I already had gained via random chance throughout my life. The skill seemed to interact with my Recollection in a way to bring that information to the front of my mind. It was very helpful, maybe life changing. I glanced out at the forest and spotted a plant here and there that might be useful. Mostly mosses. But I knew the real treasure trove of herbs was out in the grasslands. Even from here the grasses on the other side of the river revealed a good handful of hidden flowers and herbs that were beneficial.
I never had a green thumb. I was pretty confident in my ability to accidently and instantly kill any plant that I came in contact with. But luckily I just needed to harvest what was already growing out there for a plentiful bounty, not grow it.
I hung up the plants in my hut along the walls. It was getting a real rustic storehouse appearance. Pest poked his nose out of his burrow, which was dug into the side of one of the dirt walls along the side of the sunken floor. He seemed to approve of my collection of goods. I nodded at him, and he just slumped down to stretch his tiny little arms out in front of him. They were so stubby they didn’t even go past his nose.
Night didn't wait and crashed down around us soon enough.
[Congratulations! You survived the nig…]
I was ready for it this time! I canceled it before it could even finish fading into view all the way! I gotcha bluey! Then I went back to sleep and waited for the morning to actually catch up to the pre-dawn alarm clock.
This new day I focused on processing the lumber and poles I made yesterday. I set some premium pieces aside for certain projects, but the majority of the wood went to my fence line.
I started my fence by making a notch at about head height in the trees that would serve as my fence posts. I had already their removed limbs as high as I could reach. I put a pole in the notches and lashed it in place on two trees.
I used my axe to make a rough point on one end of a piece of lumber and drove it into the earth like a giant stake. I found the axe wasn’t up to the task, so I quickly lashed a stone to a Y shaped stick and made a crude hammer to drive the stakes in. I leaned the top of the stake into the crossbeam that connected the trees and tied it into place. The new hammer tool unlocked a crafting schematic.
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the schematic for Primitive Maul!]
My schematics were starting to pile up and I wouldn’t mind seeing the collection I had gathered. Schematics. I took a shot in the dark summoning a System command.
[Which category would you like to review?]
[Tools]
[Supplies]
[Construction]
Construction. I selected it with a frown. I hadn’t gotten any construction schematics as far as I was aware.
[Available Schematics]
[Firepit]
[Small Hut]
[Cooking Spit]
[Fence Panel]
I frowned. I didn’t recall getting a notification that I knew how to make these things. Looked like a bug to me, time to report it!
“Report!” I commanded in a sing-song voice.
[Would you like to report an issue?]
[Misuse of this feature could result in administrative actions.]
“When the days were old, and the knights were bold, the system fucked up cold, and didn’t notify me of my construction schematic notifications… so I thought you should be told.” I finished up my song lamely and submitted it. Good enough for government work. Like seriously. My wife worked for the government, and some of the stories of her coworkers. Those pension seeking fuckers were all about the bare minimum.
I put the pile of lumber into my thoughts and focused on the next crossbeam and focused on making it complete. The System sensed my desire, and a slight wave of fatigue went through me. Nothing serious, just like an out-of-shape dude going up a flight of stairs. I personally never knew that feeling. But with that I had another section of finished fence. I completed the entire fence line in record time. I had to take a little break afterwards as the energy to do a task that would normally take a few hours was taken out of me nearly instantly. But I felt better immediately after drinking some water and having a snack.
My conclusion was whatever task you had the system run for you that was an instant action and not auto-pilot, would suck the amount of energy that it would normally take for you to do it, instantly. I don’t know if I could choose which option I wanted to use, or if each skill was predetermined as auto-pilot vs instant cast. It would require further experimentation in the future.
Pest inspected my construction work, but didn’t mention it, as he passed between the gateway I left. I’d need to rig a gate of some sort, but I was still thinking on how to hinge it. Probably ropes and a scaled up version of my hut door, but I was hoping to come up with something more clever. I left it just an open space for now.
Back inside my camp I used my Woodworking skill to join some of the saved lumber into a large rectangle. I took the deer skin which felt dry now but needed a little bit of scraping to get some of the grosser tissue off the flesh side and cut it in half. The top portion I laid over the wooden rectangle and stretched out as tightly as I could make it. I used some scrap leather and cut it into thick strips. Using them I pierced the skin along the edges and tired the skin in place, like a drum. I did the same thing with the other portion of skin on the lower part of the rectangle. And just like that I had a cot. I dragged it into my hut and set it up. The fur side was up, I knew it probably wasn’t cured long enough yet, but I couldn’t help being impatient. I needed something in the way of luxury. Waking up with an old man back every day sucked. Not to mention that sleeping on dirt was…. dirty.
I tenderly laid out on the cot. It actually held. I did a fist pump. I checked my schematics list again, and sure enough the construction options now listed a cot as well. Defiant shenanigans there. I couldn’t wait to see if I got another prize for another System solve.
I took the axe to the large tree stump that was in the middle of my camp and converted it to a table using a few planks from the dwindling lumber collection. A few tree rounds that I saved became some ugly stools. One was extra high with a strategically left limb to be a climbable high seat for Pest. I knew if I made these without the use of the System they would be jagged and uncomfortable using just an axe to cut them, but luckily with my Woodworking and Logger skills the ends were smooth enough to sit on.
[Congratulations! Woodworking has increased to Level 2!]
I earned a level up for my furniture efforts. I had one more project I wanted to work on today. I took the remaining lumber and large logs to the edge of the water. I had to push the logs, there were just too heavy for me to carry, But I manhandled and rolled them to the water’s edge. The shallow portion of the river that I could reach from the bank was where I had been bathing. It was the easiest area to access so I unceremoniously rolled the logs over the edge to splat down into the mud. Ironically this mud pit was on the clean river side. I tossed the remainder of the wood into the mud below as well, careful not to overshoot and lose it to the water moving past. I also brought the rest of my twine with me.
Raft time! I used two large logs like pontoons and connected them with planks. In between the logs were a rough collection of limbs and logs that didn’t quite fit anywhere else but would add buoyancy I hoped. It got tied together in a spider web of twine and then capped off with more planks. The more I added to it, the harder it became to keep it steady as I didn’t have much space to work with before it was in the river's current. It was an arms span wide and a little few feet longer than that.
The river grabbed hold of it firmly as I maneuvered it fully into the water. I scampered aboard as the water took hold and it started to float downriver quite swiftly. It gave me an alarming number of creaks and groans with some of the boards slipping and twine going loose. However, it held together. I snatched up a long pole I had set atop it and pushed at the bottom of the river guiding it to the sandy side. I beached it in the sand and hopped off before pulling it further onto the shore.
I had traveled down river a little bit, but not nearly as far as when I fell… err... jumped in a few days ago. The buried boat location was still downriver quite a bit. But that wasn’t the goal today. I was after as much yucca, I realized it was called, as I could load up into my raft. I guess Herbalists helped me identify useful plants that weren’t necessarily for eating, drinking, or healing as well. The yucca was one of the best plants around for making twine and I had used the last of mine on this raft. And with the way it was bending and wobbling on the river, I might need to upgrade that twine to rope.
I spent the rest of the day harvesting and stacking yucca on the raft. I made a portion of green rope and attached it to my raft so I could pull it upriver. I had to use Repair on the raft a couple times as I went, as some of the flotsam logs came loose and started to tear things apart inside.
Once I made it far enough upriver, I made sure everything was as tight as it was going to be in this situation and used my green rope to secure the bales of yucca. I hopped on my raft and poled it to the other side as fast as I could. It was a little easier this time around, able to gauge my balance on the makeshift water vessel a little better.
“Rammin’ speed Cap’n!” I shouted as I not so gently guided it into the muddy shore bank. It slammed home and jammed into the soft mud. I disembarked with a loud plop as I dove into the mud and ensured my craft wouldn't dislodge and float away.
“All ashore!” I called out gaily. Pest made himself known with a mental tickle and poked his head out from the banks edge, which was just above my head.
“All men accounted fer Cap’n!” I announced to him and gave him a jaunty salute. He looked less than amused.
‘Pest no Captain.’ He told me with indignity.
“Oh, if not so, then what are ye wee landlubber?!” I asked him as I unslung my first bundle of yucca. They were held together with lashings made of green yucca I had processed on the other side of the river.
‘Valued Associate,’ He announced with as much gravitas as I’m sure the little guy could muster.
“Well, Mr. Valued Associate, make way!” I announced and tossed a bundle of yucca up onto the bank. He swiftly dodged around it and then, from what I could hear, started tearing at the bundle. I quickly tossed all the bundles up onto the bank until I ran out. There were quite a few. I took the boat rope and wadded it down to the apple tree at the point of the two rivers. I tied the raft to the tree to secure it, and tried to beach it the best I could, but there wasn’t much area to get it out of the water along the bank. Even at the muddy section I built and unloaded it in had enough water for it to easily come loose and float off. I dreamed of my tiny fishing dock again. I’d have to figure that out.
As I walked back upstream, I inspected the bank. As far as I had found, in my fenced off corner of land, only this one section of muddy beach was climbable. If I shored up that section, nobody could scale the bank to reach me.
As I sat in the camp, and unbundled the yucca, night finally caught up to the day. I felt secure, and even more established. But I began to wonder if this is really what I wanted? To live out in the wilderness like a hermit. This location was prime real estate, that was for sure. I could build anything I wanted here, and with the variety of supplies surrounding me, I could make it more comfortable with each passing day. But I was out here alone with a ferret.
I think the best path, now that I felt as if I had a starting location, would be to adventure out, seek others. Maybe I could find some supplies that I needed, or trade for them. I didn’t have much of value, but with the coins I purloined, maybe I could get something to boost my living conditions. Looking around my camp, it wouldn’t take much to increase my quality of living at all.
[Quest Updated]
[Quest: Explore Floor 1: Midgard]
[Subquest: Establish a homebase in Midgard. - Completed]
I was startled, this notification took up all my vision and was accompanied by a chime. They didn’t often make noises. I had forgotten about the quest prompts. I’d bet since I was considering this an established starting base it must have triggered the quest for the System. The subquest text turned green and faded, to be replaced by another line.
[Subquest: Explore Midgard and find civilization.]
Well… that's what I was just thinking of doing, so sure mind spying System I’ll do that. I bet you watch me poop too. Pervy System.
I finished laying out the yucca to dry.
“Okay, so here is the plan,” I announced at Pest as he slunk out of the hut to nom another bunny. “We are going to go harvest herbs and plants in the grasslands for trade while hunting some more. Climb a tree to see the surrounding area for any signs of civilization. Annnnnd….” I drew out the word, looking for one more task, because three is a pivotal number of tasks. “We are going to…” I frowned.
‘What?!’ Pest demanded in anticipation, dancing on his little feet.
“We are going to go dig up that boat wreck and see if it holds any loot!” I finally came to another task. Pest looked unimpressed with our last task.
‘Loot?’ He asked pensively.
“Yes, loot. Like the stuff we got from Urkel!” I informed him and he instantly perked up at that, his eyes wide as he laid his immobile stare at me.
‘Trade Discs?’ He questioned quietly. I blinked at his terminology.
“Yes, trade discs.” I confirmed, thinking he could only mean the coins.
He danced a merry little spin and snapped at the air in a truly vicious maneuver of joy. Apparently, he approved of the plan.
“System!” I commanded, “Add the plan to the list!”
[TODO List Updated]
“Show list!” I commanded.
[TODO:]
[1. that.]
[2. Go huntin’.]
[3. the plan.]
I facepalmed. “Clear list” I muttered between my fingers. I swear it took me so literal just to fuck with me, damn thing read my mind the rest of the time.
[TODO List Cleared]