Day 8

Waking up, I quickly started a fire and boiled some water to drink, then I grabbed the bow and a quiver of arrows and a knife. I also took the pack, twine, and two tupperware containers for any plants that I might find. When I was, ready I headed out northwest, after moving for several hours through the forest, I spotted a rabbit eating some flowers near some bushes about 8 meters in front of me, carefully unslinging the bow and slowly notching an arrow I took a deep breath and drew the sting until it was taught aimed and released. The arrow flew and pierced the rabbits hip. The rabbit let out a pitiful squeak and tried to jump away but the arrow prevented its movement and all it could do was crawl. Quickly moving to its side, I took out my knife and grabbing its ears to lift its head, I slit its throat trying not to look at its eyes.  I felt sick, but I knew that I needed to eat and survive. Grabbing the rabbit, I took out the arrow and tied the rabbits’ hind legs with the twine and hung it from a branch of a nearby tree so that its blood would drain away.

Rabbit (Lvl 1) has died. You have received 2 experience points.

 Waiting while the rabbit hung I walked away to examine the nearby berry bushes. As I was picking berries in to one of the tupperware containers I saw that a grey fox was circling about the rabbit trying to get at it. I guess that the blood attracted it. Putting the container under the bush I unslung the bow once again and aimed and fired, the fox probably hearing me looked up and tried to dodge the arrow but was not fast enough and the arrow pierced its stomach. Quickly drawing my knife, I rushed at it to cut off its escape. I pounced on it and drove the knife into the side beside the arrow.

Grey fox (Lvl 1) has died. You have received 7 experience points.

You have learned the Skill: Archery

Grabbing the fox and slitting its throat,” Sorry little guy, but I need to eat.” I hung it and returned to gathering the berries and when the container was full, I stuffed it in to the bag and finding a large stick I returned to the hanging animals and transferring them to the stick I hung them over my shoulder and slowly began returning to wards my camp. An hour passed as I was returning and I spotted a large bear ambling along through the trees, I shrank from the bear and trying to make as little noise I began inching my way as slowly and as quietly as possible away from the bear. I was very happy when the big animal ignored me and ambled on its way. Sighing happily, I continued to the lake, by noon I was in sight of the lake with two more rabbits added to the stick. I also received a new skill.

You have learned the Skill: Stealth

I guess the fact that I met the bear was a good thing as it forced me to be cautious and not as if I was on a picnic. Walking up to my camp I laid out the rabbits and fox, put away the bow and quiver and grabbing one of the knives that I could not use for hunting as they were for cooking I walked up to the animals and began skinning them. When I was done, I put the parts that I would not eat in to a tupperware container and grabbing the shovel I walked away to bury them. Returning with some small sticks I lit the fire and grabbing some of the rabbit meat I skewered it on to the sticks and poking it into the ground near the fire with the meat about a foot from the flames to cook. As I waited for the meat to cook, I decided to finally look at the books.

* Blacksmithing for Beginners

* The Bushcraft Field Guide to Trapping, Gathering, and Cooking in the Wild

* Wilderness Medicine: Beyond First Aid

* Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties: The Classic Guide to Building Wilderness Shelters

* The Hunting & Gathering Survival Manual

* Farming for Beginners

* Woodworking: Complete Woodworking Guide for Beginner’s with Step by Step Instructions

* How to Stay Alive in the Woods: A Complete Guide to Food, Shelter and Self-Preservation Anywhere

I grabbed the “The Hunting & Gathering Survival Manual” book and began reading. Several times I had to stop and adjust the meat so that it would not burn. After half hour, I tasted the meat and finding that it was cooked I ate some and when I found some parts that were undercooked I just returned them to cook over the flames. I was thinking what I was going to do with the rest if the meat when I thought of jerky and using the tripod I carefully removed the pot and tying three sticks horizontally above the flame and placing sticks on top of them I had what looked like a ‘grill’. Adding some more wood to the fire I waited to see what would happen to the ‘grill’ when it did not catch fire after half hour I grabbed all of the meat and laid it on the ‘grill’ to dry and began reading the book on survival. After a few hours of reading, tending fire and observing the drying meat I had some ideas on how to set rudimentary traps.

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Looking at the time I had several hours of light left, and so I decided that I would try and make a fish trap. After gathering several armfuls of branches, I walked to the river and found several large rocks that I would use and began building the trap. Several hours of building and I was happy with my creation, when I was done I received a prompt.

You have created: Rudimentary fishing trap, it has a 5% of catching a fish per hour.

You have learned the skill: Trap Making

I was happy for my new skill and after adding more wood to the fire and flipping over the meat then, I left to go to sleep.

Day 9

Waking up, I checked on the meat and the trap, ate and started reading the book on survival. Afternoon I was bored out of my mind and decided that I should begin to prepare some logs for my future home. Chopping down small trees for the next several hours, until I was starving I hurried back and finished the meat that was being smoked and checked on the trap, once again it was empty so I decided that I should go hunting once again. Grabbing my hunting gear, I went out, in search of some more meat. Today I decided to just go north for the next 4 hours or until I spot a decent animal to hunt, after an hour of moving through the forest I spotted several small animals but choose not to hunt them I was still hoping for something bigger like a badger or a deer. This evenings hunt was a success even though I did not kill any large animal, I was able to catch 3 more rabbits and gathered 2 containers of berries. When I returned to my camp it was dark already dark as the time was approaching midnight, I quickly started a fire and skinned the animals and cooked the one rabbit and prepped the other two for smoking, after eating the rabbit and berries I fell asleep. By the way the days’ exertions raised my strength by 1 and dexterity by 1 as I was chopping the trees.

Day 15

Over the next four days I hunted, chopped wood and created more fish traps. I was slow gathering enough wood to begin making a frame for my home. I finished the “The Hunting & Gathering Survival Manual” book, which taught me how to prepare leather and hides, also it taught me how to spot edible plants. As a nice surprise my intellect increased by +1. The constant cooking gave awarded me the cooking skill, which improved the quality of the food very slightly. Also, my archery increased to level.

You have learned the skill: Cooking

You have reached skill level 2 in Archery. + 0.5% bonus to aim. + 0.8% bonus to damage.

Waking up on day 15, I found out it was raining and after debating if getting out of the tent was a good idea. My hunger decided my actions and I forced myself to go out and eat some of the berries that I gathered the previous day. With a full stomach, I went to check on my fish traps and I finally saw that a fish was caught. Jubilant that one of the traps caught a fish. Deciding that spending the day reading and digging the perimeter of my future home would be a productive way of using today. Three hours after I started digging the rain turned in to a drizzle and then stopped with a beautiful rainbow looking over the lake and the mountains to the east. After I was done with digging at noon, I cooked the fish and enjoyed it immensely. Starting a fire was a huge pain in the ass as all of the wood was wet. After my meal, I checked on the traps again and sitting down on a boulder near the lake I opened the “Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties” and began to read. I had a good idea of how the building proses was going to go, but any extra information would be an immense help and would ease the head ache that was bound to come up when I began construction. That was how I spent my 15th day on this new world.