I started my second day in the new world, contemplating how to progress, and staring at my single research point and the researches available to me.

Hunting – A basic information packet about how to hunt. - Costs 1 Research Point

Butchering – A basic information packet about how to butcher creatures. - Costs 1 Research Point

Trap Making – A basic information packet about how to make traps. - Costs 1 Research Point

Gathering – A basic information packet about how to gather plants, fruits, and mushrooms. - Costs 1 Research Point

Stone Tool Creation – A basic information packet about how to craft stone tools. - Costs 1 Research Point

Basic Dwelling Construction – A basic information packet about how to construct basic dwellings. - Costs 1 Research Point

I was sure that if I choose any research, it’d be either butchering or trap making... but I was not sure if I should spend my point now, or just wait and get basic food storage or Homunculi Brute.

After a bit more of contemplation I clicked on Trap Making and researched it, and the moment my finger made contact with it, knowledge of how to make primitive traps flooded into my mind... including knowledge of how to spot places where animals might come to.

“Huh... I’d have thought this type of information would only come from hunting.” I muttered out loud.

“Well, hunting is not the only one of the 2 that requires some for of tracking.” Rae responded hearing me mutter.

“Guess so...” I responded and got up a few seconds later and washed off my face in the river.

And as I got ready for the day, I started going over the traps I learned how to set, pitfalls, snares, deadfalls, cages etc., I had basically just gained knowledge of how to set up any trap humanity ever learned to build... well, not all of them, as I didn’t really know how to make a boulder come down on some tomb raiders, but you get the point.

Pitfalls, snares, deadfalls, nets, cages, etc., I basically had gained the knowledge to make any type of trap I wanted to... and I wanted to make all of them, but not all of them would be useful to me right now.

I can, of course, just make a pitfall, cover it in a layer of leaves and dirt, but... I don’t exactly know where the herds of animals are, so I can’t just guide them there.

I think my best option would be... just making a simple net.

With a net I could just drop it onto an animal, catch fish with it, guide herds of small animals with it and hold whatever the apex predator of this world is in place with a couple.

Pitfalls might’ve been the first trap invented by men, because they literally just used cracks in the earth as pitfall traps, but best one might be the net.

In my totally professional opinion, of course.

After washing our faces, me and Jonathan devoured the rest of the fruits left from last night, and I started cutting tall pieces of grass with my hands and teached Jonathan how to do so too!

Then I started to turn all the grass we cut into ropes and those ropes into nets while Jonathan continued to give me more and more grass.

After an hour or so, we were left with a decent net that would definitely not survive the next week, and a 10-metre rope to go with that.

With Jonathan and Rae in tow, I entered the forest and told Jonathan how this trap of ours would work.

We were going to find a herd of animals, then we were going to hide him up a tree, and I was going to guide at least one of them towards the trap and he was going to drop the net on them, easy peasy lemon squeezy!

After a quite a bit of time of just wandering around the forest, we soon spotted a herd of... deer rams? I mean, they were tall, and had ram horns so... deer rams.

My god, my naming sense is divine!

Then I quickly moved Jonathan on top of a tree, and told him to release the net while something was passing down it, then after he nodded, I circled around the deer rams in hopes of chasing one towards where Jonathan was... was it going to work?

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Probably not for the first... 20 attempts or so. But as long as that 21st attempt worked everything would be fine!

...Hopefully.

Steeling my resolve, I jumped out into open and screamed at the herd.

“BOOO!” But instead of my wanted reaction of all of them scattering and one hopefully running inn the direction where Jonathan was, all 6 animals kinda just... looked up at me and suddenly a 7th one I hadn’t seen before appeared and it was... a big boy to say the least.

It had 4 horns unlike the others who only had 2 and it was easily as big as Jonathan, and it just started slowly walking towards me.

“Whose a... good boy?” I asked while slowly backing off after I realized my mistake, but it just continued to follow me.

“Well, fuck it!” I thought and just turned around and started running, but looking back, I could see the ram deer running after me, and it was gaining ground.

Though my adrenaline filled body was barely able to match its pace, and keep me safe, it’d eventually catch up to me... but it chasing me might not be a bad thing.

Making a sharp turn, I started running in the direction where Jonathan was, and as I continued to run, I yelled out to Jonathan after I saw him up in the tree.

“PREPARE!” And after I passed him, I jumped to the ground to make a bit more distance between me and the deer ram, and as it continued to run towards me, Jonathan dropped the net on it at the right moment, and instead of reaching me, it fell to the ground and started struggling to get out of the net.

“Quickly! Come down with your spear and help me kill it!” I yelled out to Jonathan, and taking my own spear, I rushed at the deer ram and started stabbing, aiming for its neck, and soon Jonathan joined in too, but he decided to attack the much easier target, which was its body.

Soon, the deer ram stopped moving and the ground had turned red from its blood.

“Hahhh...” In relief of the successful hunt, I collapsed onto the ground and started resting, taking big gasps of air through my mouth, and Jonathan copied me and did the same.

After a few minutes of calming down, I started looking around for a big rock or something similar to work at the horns, because I knew antlers were used in primitive societies... though I did not know why or how they were used.

But hey, these horns should be as useful as antlers, right?

After a while I had separated the 4 horns from the skull, and they looked quite great... now to deal with our hunt.

Normally, for something to enter the Empire Stockpile, it’d have to be in an actual stockpile, but because I was quite literally The Emperor, anything I hunted, mined, gathered, etc., would automatically be counted in as being in a stockpile, so I knew this deer ram was 12 goddamn units!

This guy was as heavy as a fucking Homunculi Brute!

So, I planned on just turning it into another Homunculi, but first I needed to get its hide... for clothes. Me and Jonathan were men, but if the next Homunculi was a Jonathanne instead of Jonathan, it’d be weird for us to leave her naked... I mean it is already weird for me to leave Jonathan naked but... shut up.

I only have 1 pair of clothes, and I am not giving them away.

Problem, I didn’t have any stone knives or something like that with me... so I guess we are just going to look for some sharp stones here.

“Jonathan, help me find something to cut the deer ram’s hide.” I said Jonathan and turned around to look for stones.

Problem 2, all the rocks around the forest were... kinda just normal stones. None of them looked like they’d make a good knife... not that I knew how to make a good stone knife, but I think just going back to the river and finding some flint might be better...

“Hahhh... Jonathan, it seems we’ll have to carry the deer ram by ourselves... wait, what are you doing?” When I turned around, I saw that Jonathan was cutting the hide off of the deer with his claws instead of looking around for rocks.

And looking at my own claws... yeah, they were claws, but they weren’t that impressive, and their usability was reduced because... you know, they were on my hands. And proper claws would’ve made my hands mostly useless, so they were just some bastardized claws instead of proper ones.

But it seemed they did the job good enough for Jonathan to use them...

Looking at my hands and my shirt, which still had that dried blood splotch on it, which was turning sticky, I decided that I didn’t want no more blood on my hands and clothes.

“Go Jonathan! You are doing a great job!” Hearing my encouragement, Jonathan started cutting the deer ram faster.

“Wow, what a slave driver.” Rae commented from my side.

“If you want me to go help him, you might as well give me a knife. Or do you want to help him yourself?”

“Nope.”

“Thought so... btw, Rae, I was wondering but... am I only going to have 2 quests at the same time, all the time? Or do you plan on giving me more and more quests at the same time as I progress?”

“Yeah, I was planning on giving you more and more quests as time passes. Just finish this quest, and get 10 people, so we can start on the path to actually building you an empire and winning the great game!

...And don’t worry, you are not going to get bored anytime soon.” She said the last part with a smile, which immediately made all the hairs on my body to rise.

“Wait—what do you mean I won’t get bored anytime soon?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it.” She then pushed away my concerns, and I could only hope that a tier 3 or something wasn’t watching us.

After a few minutes, Jonathan was done skinning the ram deer... and the hide had a bit more flesh on it than I’d like, but the job was done, so I turned the remaining carcass into another Homunculi, and as it was a woman this time, I promptly named it Jonathanne, then we put the remaining piece of flesh and bones into the hide, and took the horns with us back to the river.

And after I teached Jonathan how to start a fire, and cook food, I started removing the bits of flesh off of the hide, as best as I could and then moved onto the hair and removed them too, after having a quick meal with Jonathan and Jonathanne, we went back into the forest to grab a few fruits from the places we were to yesterday, and after returning, I had all 3 of defile the trees further and collect more branches from them.

I wasn’t planning on turning them into Homunculi right now, but I had a quest I needed to complete, so they were going to become Homunculi soon... probably tomorrow, or the day after that.

Because I really needed that Research Point. I really, really needed that.