Time to take stock. I examined my camp. It didn’t consist of much, some limbs I called a bed, a fire pit and a trash wall that was half knocked down by a couple trees. I had made a disaster. A spectacular disaster of a camp. How proud my ancestors would be. I considered what to take care of next. It hadn’t rained on me yet, but I had to suspect it would eventually. And it would be good to have a shelter built by then. With some logs and effort, I could build a little hut hopefully. I hadn’t unlocked a construction skill when I was messing with that mess, I called a fence before. Maybe because it was more part of Frontiersmen clearing camp than actually creating a proper fence.
I also needed to figure out a line on food. That snake was great and all, but other than the few bits left over, my only other reliable supplies right now were apples and berries. And the diet was already wreaking havoc on my insides, blowouts being commonplace for the last few visits to the facilities. And by facilities, I mean a tree limb that was growing crooked over the river at just the right angle I could sit on it and let fly.
I guess I do write about bowel movements now. Enjoy.
I glanced at the bow and arrow, I really needed to figure out how to make that work. And I suppose I needed to see if these woods sported something more than snakes, birds, and rodents. But since at this moment I had a day or two's worth of meat and three trees worth of apples in my camp alone, I’d focus on shelter.
The cleared area around me was decently flat due to the magic of my Frontiersman skill. It had some stones scattered around, only a few of them large enough to be considered a boulder. I had used the largest to dry my clothes, and another short and squat one as an impromptu workbench. But they were the only substantial stones breaking up my area. I could build a structure in a few ways I figured. An apple tree and a few more small trees remained in the center of the camp site. I planned to remove the latter. Unfortunately, the trees weren't the sort that would lend themselves well to a tree house or use as a support beam or wall. The only substantial tree had been the first I had cut down, which I was now realizing may have been a mistake. Even if I cut it into decent sized lengths…. How would I carry them? This System had yet to reveal to me an inventory mechanic. I wonder if I just didn’t know how to use it, or if it didn’t exist. Maybe I should file a report to bitch about it. I’m sure that would end well.
The little trees were only a few inches to a hands width thick, they would make great building materials, otherwise they were just in the way. As a kid my father was a do-it-yourself sort of fellow amongst his hobbies. That included building horse barns and tools sheds, and a full blown workshop later in life. I had a rough education in how to erect a simple structure. Some poles buried a few feet into the ground to support the structure would be sufficient for my plans. That would take a couple of the smaller trees if I cut them in half. I could use another couple to box in the top. The limbs from the trees should be sufficient to create cross beams on the roof, and then I’d have to figure out something for roofing. I could use limbs with leaves or maybe sod if I could keep it up there. I snapped my fingers, my Ingenuity triggering, I could shave the bark off the big tree I felled and use it as shingles.
I went to work with my axe and brought down the remainder of the trees, felling them all into the same section of broken fence line. As I had figured earlier, I cut them down to a length about my height plus another half. This is when I started to hit some snags in my productivity. I lacked a digging tool, and I lacked a good rope or twine to bind the beams together. I had a lunch of snake bits and apples while I thought about it. It was horrid, and unfilling. But I wouldn’t starve.
I went to the bank of the river, like I had mentioned before, the erosion on this side of the river left me with a decent drop to the water and not much was growing along the edge. I was hunting for some more of those plants that I had made my wet grass rope with earlier. I really should have just brought it along. There were a couple, but only a few handfuls of bundles worth of leaves were harvestable. It must be the wrong biome for them to grow in abundance. Across the river they seemed to be growing in the strange sand and scrub area.
I brought them back and spread them out on my drying rock, as I started to think of it. I fed the fire some more wood debris to resurrect it from the dying embers it had grown into. Looking at the leaves I decided they were broad enough to probably be cut smaller to stretch my materials a little bit. I used my knife to carefully split one down the center, as I pulled it apart, I was surprised to see just how fibrous it was. Threads that reminded me of corn silk, but with a lot more strength and rigidity pulled free of the raw edge. Under the green tissue of the surface, it was a collection of long thin fibers. That meant I could probably get a significant increase in the yield of my harvest per leaf.
Using a stone as a scraper I pulled back the green surface until the fibers were easily pulled loose.
[Material Refining - Flora]
Unlock Conditions - Improve a piece of the flora for use in crafting.
[lvl 1] - Slowly refine an item into materials.
[lvl 3] - Quickly refine an item into good materials.
[lvl 6] - Very quickly refine an item into quality materials.
[lvl 9] - Instantly refine an item into premium materials, ending up with more than you should have. FLOWER CROWNS FOR EVERYONE!
Another skill earned. Another one with an awesome level 9 perk. Someday I was going to be a crafting monster, creating things out of nothing of only the best qualities!
The Flora classification was a great hint that this skill would have multiple versions. I’d bet a few hundred bucks, which I no longer had, that another version of this skill would be for fauna and minerals. If not, then a very close variation. But I had no smelter or forge to bang some rocks into ingots. And that was one area I had zero experience with. I doubt my dad’s tiny heat forge that he would bend his own horse shoes with would help me figure out which rocks were the meltable kind. Plus, I don’t think I could make a fire or fireplace that could produce or handle how many every thousands of degrees to do it in.
I had seen a few YouTube videos of folks doing it in homemade crucibles. Melting household objects and recasting them in sand as weird shit. But I'd never dabbled in that. Who wanted to burn down their house to make a bronze Boba Fett or something? No thanks. Also, it looked expensive. Always a hindrance.
I grabbed up a leaf and activated my skill. My hands went on auto-pilot, like watching a POV GoPro bushcraft video. I saw myself doing the actions needed to turn the leaf into nice separated strands. It was a little disconcerting, but not overly so. I stopped the action, just to ensure that I wouldn't be locked into doing it. Can you imagine turning on your skill to knock out a little auto-pilot crafting and our friendly neighborhood cannibal decides to show up and bite off your nose?
I collected all the leaves and activated the skill. My body finished the one it had been half done with and then started on the next one. I was a little bored so I just kind of zoned out. I guess it was a little zen too. After a few minutes, I was done with the motions and had a nice selection of fibers.
“Oops,” I told the little pile, “I meant to dry you.”
‘What?’ Pest poked his nose out of the rucksack.
“Nothing, just talking to the plants,” I gestured at my pile of craft leavings.
‘Oh, okay.’ He disappeared again, no further explanation needed.
“I’m not crazy!” I announced, suddenly feeling crazy. “A man can talk to a plant!” I informed the inert bag.
Muttering about nosy roommates, I snatched an apple off the tree and went to hunt down a couple more plants.
[You have taken Blunt Damage.]
The damn bugs found me again. I wiped the squished mosquito off my hand and onto my pants. “Little fucker, I’m going to end up with a Blood Donation skill or something at this rate.” The sun was on its way down as I came back into camp muttering and holding a bale-size handful of the leaves I was using for twine. I spread them out on the rock and refed the fire. I took up the already processed strands and crafted them into some twine.
Though still green, the twine was woven tight and much better looking than my previous attempts. I might actually trust this to hold something together now. After getting my twine I started to think of how I might make a digging tool. I took a long length of limb and a stone that was shaped like my hand with a narrow end. I used the axe to split the limbs end and affixed the stone to the end of it like I had the axe blade to its handle. It was basically the same sort of construct, just a different stone shape and a longer handle. I frowned at it. It wasn’t quite right. I took it apart, my Deconstruct skill failed to work, apparently the System didn’t register it as an item. This time I decided to try to work the rock over a little bit. I smacked it with another rock and slowly broke chips off of it. I shaped it vaguely like an axe head, sharp on one end with a slight taper in the middle to give better hold for the twine wrap. I don’t know why this surprised me, but it did.
[Material Refining - Stone]
Unlock Conditions - Improve a piece of the stone for use in crafting.
[lvl 1] - Slowly refine an item into materials.
[lvl 3] - Quickly refine an item into good materials.
[lvl 6] - Very quickly refine an item into quality materials.
[lvl 9] - Instantly refine an item into premium materials, ending up with more than you should have. LET’S GET STONED!
It was almost verbatim from the flora, but another material type. For some reason when I was thinking of alternatives only ore and metals were clicking in my head. I didn’t even consider the skill would have a stone version. Which seemed silly in retrospect. My wits failed me! I considered raising them a point in revenge but held off.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
With a little more enthusiasm I placed the new blade into the stick just like the axes, but I positioned the blade’s sharp-portion facing away from the shaft. That way I could stab the ground with it, breaking roots and earth. Applying the twine granted me the gratification of being proven correct.
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the schematic for Primitive Shovel!]
I didn’t really consider it a shovel, more a ground stabber, but whatever, I’d take it. The night was upon us by then, so I decided to call it an evening, sharing a little snake with Pest to convince him to let me borrow the nest for a pillow. He seemed displeased with the transaction after the trade, but it happened anyway.
[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.]
By all that is evil and unholy, the blue box lived to wake me up again. I swore by every fiber of my loins, I would seek a blood bound vengeance oath against the abomination of an alarm clock. I tried to go back to sleep, but the uncomfortable bedding didn’t help ease me back to sleep. Since I was up, I was up, I guess.
I stretched like Pest would do, I could feel his silent approval from wherever he was hiding, and got up. It was a good day to build a hut! I started a fire, because I could, I’d have to go seek out a fallen or dead tree soon for some real firewood. Was running a little low on tangles and brambles to burn. I’ll add that to the list, I thought.
[TODO List Updated]
I blinked as a swift notification slid into my view. That’s a new one. Add go huntin’ to the list! I thought.
[TODO List Updated]
“Hot damn! New features! Good job blue Alexa.” I smiled to the sky. “Show list?”
[TODO:]
[1. that.]
[2. Go huntin’.]
“Hot damn!” I said again. Every new command was a small victory.
With a renewed pep in my step, I chose my building location and got to work with my ‘shovel’. The earth was easy to break, I found, and decided that my Frontiersman skill had something to do with it. After digging at the dirt for a little bit the System gave me a notification blink. I decided to ignore it for now. I assumed it was a new skill notification, and while new skills gave me a fantastic feeling each time, I decided to hold off. I wondered if maybe my natural love of progression was why I loved each new skill so much or maybe something was enhancing the dopamine signals. It felt good either way, like a drug. But it was getting a little counterproductive to stop each time one flagged and instantly investigate it. I think I'd hold off until I had a couple or took a break. I’m sure Digging, Earth’s Bane, Tunnel Master, Mud Pie Crafting or whatever it was, could wait for now.
Pest made an appearance and stared at me for a bit. I had to stop digging for a little while because he insisted on inspecting the hole I was making. He even made a small effort to dig it deeper for me. But not having a prey to chase seemed to not hold his attention for long. With another jaunty stare at me he disappeared again a short time later.
After creating four holes in the shape of a rectangle from each other I hefted over one of my poles. I noticed that the holes I had dug each got a little more in line with my desires as I went. My skill was getting better with each one at a noticeable degree. That was good, I thought, I will be a whole extraordinaire by the time I was done.
“Heh,” I laughed at my own joke. Someone had to. I placed my pole into the worst hole and snickered to myself again. Childish humor is still humor.
I needed to somehow join the upright beams to the cross beams, and then the roof supports to the cross beam. I thought of chairs and fences I had seen and how they would create a hole in one beam and peg in the other then snug them together. I don’t think I had the patience to carve a hole through the entire thickness of the beam, but I could carve a notch out of one and shape the other.
I sharpened the end of the standing beam a little bit and put it back in the earth. I repeated the process with the other four corners of my structure. With the cross beam I used my axe to put a notch in each end and put it on top of the upright poles. Using some of my twine I lashed it into place. The other beam went even easier, my body taking over for my desire and cutting clean and precise notches out. The roof supports were made out of smaller limbs, some of them just long enough to cross the distance, but I put in enough that only a few fingers' width of space was between them. It took a lot of little notching and trimming but it came together well.
Once my frame was in place, I packed the holes back full of dirt, mounding it up around the upright poles and stomping it as compact as I could. The tiny structure was large enough for me to lay down flat in and stretch open my arms. It was about seven feet long and five feet wide, I’d guess. The height was a little lower than I wanted, which made it easy to work on the roof, but not tall enough to stand up in. I took some time to dig out the center going down about a foot and a half. Using all the dirt I excavated to build up a ridge around the edge like an earthen wall.
I took my axe and started hacking at the large tree I felled. I carved large squares into its surface. Using the shovel blade, I pried at them to peel up large chunks of bark. These solid pieces went on the roof supports like shingles. I was quite proud of my little ingenuity and hoped that it would prove sufficient in the rain.
I tied them down with more twine and tried to overlap them as much as I could, but I ran out of accessible bark quicker than I thought I would. I also ran out of the green twine and had to process my drying leaves. The twine it made came out more like I envisioned twine should be, a light brown and strong enough I couldn't break it by pulling on it.
I took a lunch break and examined my workmanship. I was rather proud of what I had built. It looked like a proper little hut, sans walls. Each thing I did to build it, each step got easier each time I repeated it. Skills either making things work better or taking over my body to auto-pilot them in a crazy muscle memory reaction. But even with the System assistance and magical bits, my hands built this. It was all mine.
I clicked the nagging notifications light.
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Excavator skill!]
[Congratulations! You have gained one stat point to allocate!]
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Woodworking skill!]
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Construction skill!]
Three new skills and one more stat point had joined my collection. I went ahead and summoned up their descriptions on reflex. It became a habit, days ago, to bring up the details on new skills, and I didn’t deviate from that now.
[Excavator]
Unlock Conditions - Make a hole or channel by digging.
[lvl 1] - Remove dirt from a hole to your specifications.
[lvl 3] - Remove dirt from a large hole to your specifications.
[lvl 6] - Remove dirt quickly from an enormous hole to your specifications.
[lvl 9] - Remove dirt instantly from a massive hole to your specifications. THE GRAND CANYON WAS MY THESIS!
[Woodworking]
Unlock Conditions - Shape or alter wood so it can be joined back together.
[lvl 1] - Shape wood into a rough version of what you want.
[lvl 3] - Shape wood into a quality presentation of your desires.
[lvl 6] - Shape wood quickly into nearly anything you desire.
[lvl 9] - Shape wood instantly into whatever you desire, the wood will look to have grown precisely in that manner. BOB VILLA AIN’T GOT SHIT ON ME!
[Construction]
Unlock Conditions - Build a structure.
[lvl 1] - Build a mundane structure out of available materials.
[lvl 3] - Build an adequate structure out of available materials.
[lvl 6] - Build a pristine structure out of available materials or an adequate structure out of inappropriate materials.
[lvl 9] - Build a pristine structure instantly out of any materials. FRANK LOYD WRIGHT, EAT YOUR HEART OUT.
Well, wasn’t I just a regular little Bob the Builder now? After cutting the bark sections out I had a large bare log laying across my camp. Using my new woodworking skill, I encouraged my axe and shovel to do some work that I didn't think was possible without System assistance. But I envisioned some rough boards coming out of that wood, and I indeed got some rough boards. I earned the schematic for the ‘Rough Plank’ after my auto-pilot demonstrated to me that using the shovel and axe like a wedge I could split large chunks of wood off in rough lumber shaped chunks. They ended up more like long chunks of firewood wedges, but they served the intended purpose well enough. Stacking the long wedge chunks on top of each other and using twine to lash them to the uprights I made a serviceable wall. I mixed some water with dirt and sand to create a thick mud and used it to plug any gaps and shore up the bottom. It kind of looked like a warped set of splintered Lincoln logs had been spread with peanut butter and tired to a pole. But it made a wall and separated the inside from the outside.
I did this on both the longer sides of the little building. On the far side I used stones and sandy mud to create a wall. I left a small hole in the base of it and on the exterior of the wall built a small stone cave. I intended this to be a small stove to heat the little building without burning it down. Whether it worked as planned or not remained to be seen. For the open side I created a door frame with poles and a few boards to cap off the wall. I made a door with some boards tied onto a square pole frame that I had fitted together using my Woodworking skill. I used multiple looks of twine to form a rough hinge that held the door in place on one edge. I had to lift and move it carefully, but it was serviceable.
As night was falling, I built a fire inside of the stove cave and waited to see if it worked or not. I guess it wasn’t necessary with the ambient temperature remaining pleasant, but I didn’t know if that would last and I wanted to be prepared if this area went through a season involving snow or not. I hoped the world Loki had built was a little basic and wouldn’t go through seasons, but I didn't have proof one way or another.
Might as well be prepared as I could.
My little hut seemed to be functioning as intended. The inside filled with smoke pretty quickly until I removed one of the bark shingles to let it out. Other than that, I considered it a success. The fire had the added benefit of drying things out very well inside and out. My mud didn't hold up well and I had to repair some portions of the exterior with more rocks and wood bits as required. But it would do. I slept that night inside of it on the dirt. Being recently dug it was more comfortable than my current bed situation. I earned one more skill for my efforts.
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Masonry skill!]
[Masonry]
Unlock Conditions - Build something out of stone.
[lvl 1] - Craft primitive structures out of rock and stone.
[lvl 3] - Craft mundane structures out of stone and bricks.
[lvl 6] - Craft pristine structures out of exotic stone and bricks.
[lvl 9] - Craft legendary structures out of anything the earth gifts you. THIS LITTLE PIGGY IS READY FOR THE WOLF!