It took Fredrick almost the entire day, and finding an oasis, for him to realize he was actually in a desert.
He was still in the forest, crawling in the canopy, but the forest was a desert. There was no drinkable water.
One of the few exceptions was this tree. Its special feature were its upwards pointing leaves, which were comically large and spun around themselves, almost like a flower, or lettuce. Their shape had resulted in them working as water-collectors, allowing for the morning dew to condense on the large surface area. Then the dew would dribble down the leaves and collect in the cavity at the bottom of them. Finally the leaves would double as shade and prevent evaporation from the sun.
With each leaf holding roughly two sips of water, and the tree itself being on the rather massive size, there was plenty enough to sate his thirst.
…And after nearly 2 days of physical exhaustion and no more than mere drops of water, he was thirsty. Suffice to say he drank until he could not get a single drop more in him.
He had spotted it from afar by watching all the birds congregate around it, they too, like him, were thirsty. That was when he had made the conclusion that he was in a dessert.
There was grass, there were trees, he even saw some mushrooms once.
But that was it. The vegetation was sparse. No berries grew. The only larger wildlife he had seen was a deer of some sort, and it too had appeared weak and exhausted.
At the time he had spotted it he had felt the same, and thus he had not gone in pursuit of it.
The point still stood, it was a dessert. No free water flowed anywhere, it was all contained in the trees, grass, animals, and one singular lake. The trees, despite all being different, didn’t produce anything edible at all. No fruits, not even nuts.
They also held no flowers. Frederick couldn’t say he was an expert on trees, but insofar he could tell, none of the trees he had seen had any obvious way of reproducing or multiplying. They were all essentially self-sustaining dead constructs with no future. Once the trees fell, something outside had to replace him, but unless there was untapped water beneath the earth, nothing major could.
It was that depressive image that had compelled him to call it “The dessert of trees”
The fact a place like this existed at all really drove home the fact that he was in a new place.
As in: this world had been created less than 2 days ago.
‘shit, if I ever get kids I can say I was around since the beginning of time, literally, this is so weird.’
The water had restored some vitality and energy to him, an energy that only made his hunger more apparent.
It was a dessert in which no food but grass grew. Animals existed though, and, fortunately for him, they were made of food. Unfortunately for him the “food” around him had a will on their own, and they did not agree on him classifying them as such.
Fast as he was, there was no getting close to any of the birds. They all had a modicum of caution in their hearts and had, somewhat expectedly, the ability to just fly away. It only took him about 2 failed attempts for them to know his intention and keep away from him entirely.
He knew birds were smart animals for their sizes, but it still felt a bit humiliating to lose against literal birdbrains.
He made his way down the tree.
If brute force couldn’t do it, some preparation was in order. The tree provided a source of drinking water, he could likely afford to be around it for a day or two while he figured out how to gain his next meal.
----------------------------------------
Later:
The air thundered with the sound of a rock slicing through it. It hit a tree, with a small boom bark and sparks flew everywhere. Next to the left-over impact there could be seen dents and missing bark from the practice with non-infused rocks.
Mana:
15/16 → 10/16
As it turned out:
5 mana changed a “sometimes flings of bark and makes a small dent into the wood beneath” into a
“flings of several pieces of bark and makes a slightly larger small dent in the wood beneath”
“oh neat, I got another mana point too” He observed. He had a few notifications he had missed actually.
The Resources you've trained today:
+1 Mana. +10 exp
+2 Stamina. 20 exp.
Max Mana 15 → 16
Max Stamina 53 → 55
You have been given an easy solution, yet you kept going your own way to water:
+1 Self-determination. +100 exp
Self-determination 4 → 5
Jump, crawl, and twist your body through the trees, that is what being agile is
+1 Agility +100 exp
Agility 8 → 9
Lvl: 4 (410/500 exp)
That was the 2nd Agility he had gotten that day, if he counted the one he had gotten from resting that was.
That…felt fast.
“Is it fast?" in just two days I have gotten 3 levels and nearly doubled my speed, that feels fast”
Then again, he had nothing to compare to. Except the wolf from yesterday of course, it had been level 4 already, going by that standard he was falling behind.
“If that is the standard of progression, things are going to get real spicy, real fast.
The thought made him shutter. Having levels and gaining superpowers fast was nice and dandy until you realized everybody else got it too, then it became.. well.. spicy.
In any case, nothing to do but improve.
With his pocket full of throwing rocks, he returned to his make-shift “camp”, which was about 100 meters from the “Oasis tree”. He had chosen the spot because a really nice tree grew there. It was easy to climb, only made easier by his Agility stat, and had a sort of angular canopy that almost made it look like a tree house. All he had to do was to put some sticks in the right places and he kind of had a wall and ceiling that could give the vague impression of an “inside and safe” area.
Next to it he had arranged some rocks around a bundle of sticks.
This was where he would have started a fire and roasted some animal he had caught, if he had any.
He did not.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
searching in an area around the place had not allowed him to spot any large, or small, game, nor any traces thereof. Despite his supernatural speed, the rest of him was sadly very much that of a city-living mortal. As such, no obvious method of tracking down prey came to his mind.
Thus, birds it was, and thus the rock-throwing practice.
----------------------------------------
Raven observed how the human ventured forth on its journey. Despite the apparent poor perception It had eventually managed to gain a kill on some equally incompetent pheasant.
“He”, it surmised the human to be male, now sat in the evening light next to a bonfire, roasting his meal. Raven felt tempted to jump in and ask for some spare meat, with its perception they could make a good team.
Yet, it did not, the only flesh it would accept from this human was its own. It felt hot hatred coursing through its veins at the sight of him.
“He” had killed Ravens Wolfmate. He was supposed to be easy prey, a fast way to power in this new world. Somehow he had miraculously survived, somehow he had manifested strength unseen, and killed Wolfmate instead. That could not stand.
Despite the unfairness, the rest of the pack had turned around and blamed it on Raven. They were unwilling to follow its call anymore. Those cowards! they held no courage! No hate! But raven did, Raven would get its revenge.
That being said, he was strong now. His movement fast and precise, his sorcery held thunder.
Eagle, who by Ravens estimates held the greatest power in this area, had no interest in fighting the human. It lazily ate its daily meal and happily avoided such risks.
Raven would had loved to do it itself, but unfortunately its strength did not go that way.
Name/Race: Raven
Lvl: 4 (260/500 exp)
Mystical Resources:
Unassigned Resource Points: 0
Callers Mark 56/56
You mark someone, making them emit a presence felt by those nearby.
Your call allows for the mark to communicate simple concepts to those who feel it.
Your Inconspicuous decrease the likelihood of the marked noticing.
Empowerments:
Unassigned Empowerment Points: 0
Inconspicuous: 8
Your presence is unseen and unnoticed. and should you be noticed, you do not stand out, neither as prey or predator.
Perception: 7
Minorly improves all physical perceptive organs (eyes, ears, smell, touch, etc) . Majorly improves mental perceptive abilities.
Call: 4
Infuse your voice with your intentions, letting your called know to follow you and why. You cannot forcefully compel somebody. Uses a small amount of callers mark
No other animals wanted to do it, but that was fine.
Not all that lived now existed before genesis. Soon it would be night, and the human had yet to see what that brought.
The shadows grew longer, impossible movement could be seen, and a limp reached out from the darkness which had turned flat ground into an unknowable deep abyss.
Yes, that one would do. Raven called to it.
“follow me, I'll guide you to prey”
----------------------------------------
You’ve killed a Pheasant lvl 2! some of its strenght aligns with yours
Its “Flight” synergize with your Adrenalin:
+4 Adrenalin! +40 exp!
Its spirit leaves the world, yet something remains:
+5 Resource points! +50 exp!
Level up! 4 → 5 (0/600 exp)
+ 1 Empowerment points
+ 10 Resource points
Fredrick was not even close to being vegetarian. Especially not when hungry. Yet this had been his first, deliberate, kill. He felt a bit bad for the pheasant, but otherwise he found himself surprised at how joyous hunting and eating his own meal was.
Like: it was surprisingly gratifying how he had a problem, did something very tangible and directly related to it, and solved it.
“They say primitive people thanked their prey, it's weird being this grateful towards an animal I killed myself, but I get it now, thank you pheasant for your JUICY legs, my GAWD that is good”
He took another bite of the fat-dripping, rejoicing in the taste.
A fluttering of wings could be heard.
You’ve been Marked!!x 56
"Huh?"
Suddenly he felt like the pheasant: prey ready to be hunted and eaten.
That wasn’t right.
He immediately got up, something was going on. The mood had changed. Suddenly the shadows, that the fire cast, appeared darker, the contrast deeper.
He took a slightly burning club in hand, stone in the other. Trying to stay as close to his fire as possible.
Maybe there was an argument for not standing directly next to a light source when something was stalking you, but right now the small circle of illumination felt like a significantly better alternative than the inky dark outside.
It was a decision he did not come to regret as a horrific figure appeared right outside the unnaturally small circle of light.
Its long slender limbs were clad in a skin the same color as the forest behind it: Pure darkness, with only shine from the light revealing any contour at all. Its features appeared concerningly human, if you discounted an unknown number of excess limps and the sharp teeth. Two grotesquely large white eyes could be seen above them. Its eyes were approximately 12 feet in the air.
The irises of its eyes had just barely enough of a shade of gray for Frederick to know it was looking at him.
“Pr….AYYYYYyyy..” A raspy, whispering voice could be heard.
A hand reached for him, it appeared to push back the light even further, before it stopped not even a millimeter into the light, the pantomime made the barrier look very real.
A barrier Fredrick was very happy about, because he had all the fear running through him in that moment.