A tall figure, standing at an impressive 215cm, and clothed in a thick pure white fur coat slowly walked through the snow, a 3 meter spear strapped to his back, its shaft made of a deep black wood, and tipped with an imposing beautiful yet crude crystalline spearhead. Slowly trudged through, towing behind the corpse of a once majestic wolf triple their size upon a sled, its once majestic fur made of pure ice now cracked and broken exposing the flesh beneath, its wounds hidden beneath hydrophobic cloth in an effort not to attract more predators.

This imposing figure was none other than our protagonist.

(Pov switch, mc)

As I dragged the corpse of the Icewolf I had hunted behind me, trudging through the deep snow, held aloft only by the expansive snowshoes I stood upon, and left with nothing to do but walk. I reminisced on my times so far in this new world. And formed plans for my future endeavors. I had developed a habit of avoiding being unproductive whenever possible. And travel was no exception.

It had been 3 months since my arrival in this world, and I had accomplished a lot, although not nearly as much as I had hoped before the arrival of winter. The first snow having arrived no more than two after my arrival.

I had spent the first week building my shelter. Having found an ideal location beside a large river in the nearby valley, near a large clay deposit, its bank made of a high purity iron sand, and some geysers which would be important to my future plans. My first accomplishment was the establishment of a few primitive kilns to form mediocre quality bricks which I then used to make better kilns. Using the hours required for the bricks to search the nearby area, I found an obsidian deposit within the geothermally active area which I fashioned into crude but effective tools.

Obsidian was an ideal resource for forming high quality primitive tools, as while the mineral is brittle, it has the special property of forming incredibly sharp edges when broken, which I used to expand the clearing I had settled, and form the logs I would be using to build my hut. As it was. It would not be a good idea to build entirely out of bricks.

In the absence of refined metal and nails, I was forced to use wooden joints to keep the building together, but it seems my new physique and sharp tools makes high precision crafting quite effortless, and animal fat glue would work fine in the short term.

Upon finishing the hut and its chimney which I made from the bricks I had crafted. I began on the next most important step of my journey. Metal working.

It did not take long to create a functioning if basic metal forge. I had made a water wheel to power the bellows and powered forging equipment, allowing me to quickly create the tools required to forge larger, more valuable items.

I soon found a nearby copper deposit in an exposed cliff. Making me almost feel like the land around me had been specifically crafted to suit my needs, not that I was complaining.

This copper deposit as well as some nearby loadstones allowed me to repurpose my water wheel into a generator by day 19, which I then almost instantly replaced with a better one after using the first solely to make better magnets.

Next, I replaced my wood forge with a basic induction forge, and began to progress down the electric tech tree.

The second most annoying part of this “adventure” if you could call it that. Was that despite the fact I knew how to make highly advanced materials, computers, vehicles, weapons, infrastructure, and more. I could not simply arrive there instantly.

The greatest example of this was computers. Despite the fact I knew how to make nanometer transistors, I could not make them myself. To do that I needed highly precise machinery. And to both make and run those machines, I needed a powerful computer. Which to make I needed a less precise machine, and a less powerful computer. With this process repeating all the way down to vacuum tubes and analog computers.

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So I had to go slow.

This also led to the first most annoying part of this adventure. The equipment I made rarely lasted more than a few days, quickly replaced by the better more precise versions they allowed for.

Quickly, the biggest limiting factor for me was power. Materials were one, but due to the fact I could recycle almost everything I used, and only had to build enough equipment to supply myself, and allow for the creation of the next tier of technology, it was minor.

No, the most limiting factor for me at the moment was most definitely power, which is why the moment I had the industrial capacity to build high quality steel and large structures, my focus instantly shifted from advancement to building a drill rig. This is where the geothermally active area from earlier came into play, as it was far easier to tap into a naturally geothermal area than drill deep enough into the earth to become viable.

The drilling had begun by day 67, with the expectation that it would finish within 20 days.

Unfortunately, the river froze only 3 days later, cutting off my main power supply, and forcing me to transition to wood fired generators.

Which led me to today.

I had made essentially no progress since I began construction on my drill rig a full two months ago, and today marked day 93, exactly 3 months since my arrival, assuming every month to be 31 days. How many days that was in earth days, I had no idea, as I had no way of telling time on a cosmic scale as of yet. -even if I knew how to tell time based on the decay of certain elements. I had no way yet of measuring such decay.- and I was beginning to get antsy. Luckily, the drill was slated to reach a depth of 150 meters, by which point based on the current temperature gradient I had measured -measured by using a water pressure thermometer system placed into the existing borehole.- it should reach a sufficient operating temperature of 200C.

This geothermal plant, much like all the machines I had made thus far, was very much not planned to last, built solely to provide the necessary power to make a better power plant. And its systems were very much primitive. Giving it a distinct steampunk look. It was little more than a turbine, a generator, 400 meters of pipe, a passive water cooling tank, a very primitive capacitor array, and a few kilometers of copper wire insulated by organic rubber.

I had expected today to be one of monotony like most had as I waited, filled only with hunting, maintenance, improving my home and any technologies I could in the time I waited, etc, but it seems life had decided to throw me a curveball, as just as I was about 200 meters from my base, I stumbled across tracks leading to my house. The imprints were lined and uneven, unlike an animal's paw, and had the distinct crescent shape of a human foot. And fresh.

Instantly I went on alert, unsure of the person's intentions, I had no Idea whether or not they would react to my presence with hostility, although the small drops of red in the snow suggested they were wounded, that did little to inspire confidence, as injured creatures, human or not, were always the most desperate, and the most likely to do something stupid.

So I left my sled there after quickly burying it in a layer of snow just in case, and set off following the footsteps in the direction of my base.

During that time I made as many assumptions as possible to better have an idea what to expect. The deep footprints suggested a lack of equipment, as no one would walk into such deep snow without snowshoes or skis. So they likely lost their equipment somehow or were severely under equipped for one reason or another. Maybe they were just stupid.

They were likely injured, relatively severely considering how common the bloodstains were, but I had a lot of experience with the native fauna of this world since my arrival, and I had noticed that they could bleed a lot more than they should without suffering any ill consequences, and who knew if that applied to humanoids. My own body was much much stronger than it had been in my past life, but I knew not if that was simply a consequence of my arrival, or a boon of my reincarnation.

I also didn’t know how long they had been injured, if it had been a long time and they still bled this much that suggested they were severely injured, and likely at the brink of exhaustion, the fact they still bled also suggests they are either running from something or lack the necessary medical equipment, possibly both, almost certainly a lack of medical equipment however given their lack of snowshoes, hopefully they aren’t being followed, I would hate to have to fight humans here, as I have no idea how advanced they are and if I could win or not.

Luckily I didn’t have to wait much longer, as there, stumbling through the snow and hugging their left arm, was a figure dressed in thick clothes, as their left sleeve was drenched in crimson blood, and a large bandage crossing their shoulder, drenched through and dripping blood, told me the location of the injury, which must be quite severe considering how the bandage was absolutely soaked in their lifeblood. And I readied myself for the possibility of combat, reaching behind me and pulling my spear in front of me. My greatest creation so far, it’s spearhead made of an unknown crystal that didn’t match anything from my home world, far stronger, sharper, and more durable than it should be, even with all my tools I could only barely hammer it into shape when heated to thousands of degrees, a process I had slowly been working on over the weeks, and was still yet to complete. Meaning it was likely some magic material that didn’t exist on earth. Sat upon a shaft of wood from an old dead tree that seemed to have been split by lighting, similarly unknown to me, and far harder than any wood should be.

I was about to approach, when they stumbled and fell, laying in the snow, desperately trying to move, yet failing to do so as their right arm dug trenches in the fresh snow.

I watched for a few moments, before, satisfied in their lack of threat, I approached and pulled them from the snow. Their body and face obscured by their thick clothing, they were unconscious by the time I held them in my arms, still breathing. They wouldn't be for long If I didn’t help them.

‘I have nothing better to do anyway, and building goodwill with the locals is never a bad idea.’