Day 8

My sleep schedule is a mess.

I spent all of yesterday gathering a surplus of materials; sturdy branches, un-sturdy twigs, rocks of all sizes, leaves and bindweed beyond imagination. I don't think I really slept yesterday. I took like three separate naps.

But I eventually righted my sleep schedule and now it's time to finally make myself some shelter. It's what, day eight? And only now am I making myself shelter. It's a miracle I survived this long.

First things first, I need to make a plan. To use [simple crafting] I need to have a plan in mind before I start crafting, in order to reap the full benefits of the skill.

Have you ever gone down one of those youtube rabbit holes? Suddenly you realize after 3 hours of clicking random videos, you're in a completely different place than before? One day in middle school at 2am I went down a rabbit hole and found those survival videos. Where the guy just shows up in some random forest in nothing but his underwear and a clay pot.

Embarrassingly, I'm using a hut constructed from one of those videos as a template for this one. In my defense, what other option do I have?

I run over the process in my mind over and over again. Cementing the process into my mind.

Done. First things first, I need to clear out an area for my hut. While I am in a clearing, it's still plagued with bits of rock and pebbles strewn about.

Ten minutes later and I've cleared a large area for my hut. Now that I'm about to get started, I remember ill need to dig holes, which means I need a shovel. I'll have to craft that first. Luckily I have a surplus of materials for my tools. I do have to shape the stone for the shovel head though.

I run over to the stone pile and pull out a rather large stone, with the intention of shaping it with [grinding]. Five minutes later, and the shovel head has been made, with large grooves in the side for the bindweed to attach it to the shaft. I made sure to grind it done in a way that functioned while maintaining the stone’s integrity. After all, stone is pretty brittle.

Once the shovel is made, I get a mental ping, the sign of a system message. I already know what it is, but I glance at it anyway to stop the alarm pulsing in my head.

<[Grinding] Experience threshold Reached. Lv1 -> Lv2>

As expected.

With the shovel done, I begin making ten holes about a foot deep in a circular shape. Once those are dug to a satisfactory depth, I begin planting long, flexible branches into the holes, and then burying them with the previously extracted dirt. I compress the dirt as much as possible.

Once the ten branches are done, they stand tall, swaying in the wind like whips. I grab the nearest one and start bending it and the one directly opposite, into an arch. I then bind them together, and start on the other branches. Now done, I have the skeleton of a dome. Im sure the birds eye view would look like a very fucked up starfish.

Next I take the smaller but still flexible branches, and put them horizontally. The plan is to make rings around the dome, connecting all the branches. I start on the ground, placing the branches on the dusty floor. I then use a container of glue made from what I call horse fruit, to connect the twigs to the side of each big branch. I repeat this until I make an entire ring, then, I go up by (hopefully) a foot and begin the process again.

About an hour later, all the rings are complete. I step back to let any status messages roll in, and then wonder why i'm not hungry or thirsty.

<[Desperate Endurance] Experience threshold Reached. Lv1 -> Lv2>

<[Simple Crafting] Experience threshold Reached. Lv3 -> Lv4>

<[deft] Experience threshold Reached. Lv3 -> Lv4>

Oh.

[Desperate endurance] the skill that keeps me from dying of thirst, starvation, and suffocation.. I should go drink something.

I dash to the river and plunge my head in, choking from all the water flooding into me, and then regretting the decision further when I pull my head up and my hair clings to my face, blocking my vision.

Not that it matters too much. [sense of self] and [high hound] resonate with each other, giving me an almost complete sense of space. [sense of self] is giving me the feeling that if [high hound] levels up, i'll have a complete sense of space. Speaking of [sense of self] it hasn't leveled up in awhile. I know skills level up when you use them, but [sense of self] is constantly active, yet it hasn't gotten any better recently. I wonder what's up with that..

Well, break time is over, back to work!

No use dwelling on something I can't control.

Now, the next phase of the build is to fill in the walls. For this, I first have to combine the rings together vertically, with many smaller twigs. The gaps between each twig should be small, but not nonexistent. No matter what, there will always be a gap no matter how tight I plan to make the sticks together, best not to waste time on it.

I turned some bind weed scraps into a rudimentary hair tie so I could stop getting interrupted by my still drenched head mop. I pool together all the sticks I so painstakingly gathered yesterday. So painfully in fact, I got two levels in [tracing] for it!

One and a half hours later, and i've still only done half of the dome. My fingers and especially back hurt like hell, so I take a break to catch my breath, and let the system reward me for my hard work. And I was not disappointed.

<[Simple crafting] Experience threshold Reached. Lv4 -> Lv6>

<[Deft] Experience threshold Reached. Lv4 -> Lv5>

<[Body strengthening] Experience threshold Reached. Lv1 -> Lv2>

Oh sweet, deft is max lvl now! Yep, go ahead and rank up that bad boy.

< [1st] Tier [Deft] Has ranked up into [2nd] tier: [Greater Deft]- increases the maximum level threshold while maintaining the old bonuses >

The amount of extra points it gives hasn't changed, but now I can level it up even further. Rather than an upgrade, it simply increased the level ceiling. Its a bit disappointing, but still great nonetheless.

Class - Survivor | lv 21/25 2006/2100 xp *

Race - Other World Human? m

Achievements- The Special | Self indulgent | (+2)

Name - Maximilian Condition- Stress (Minor) | Curse of Soul Fray |

Hp- 1200/2400 (1/2)

SkP- 5 Stp- 28 Souls- 171 7 0

Stats- (+4 phys)

Strength 24

Speed 24 (+5A)

Stamina 21

Dexterity 35 (+17)

Intellect 30

Sense 50 (x2)(+10)

Vitality 12 (½)

Charm 8 {Locked}

Special Skills -

Sense of Self || lv5/10

Death Resistance \ lv1/99

Class Skills-

Desperate Endurance | lv2

Emplacement 2/3 | lv1

High Hound | lv1

Defense Orientation | lv1

Passive Skills -

Simple Crafting || lv6/10

Multishot || lv5/10

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Tracing || lv4/10

Dismantling | lv2/5

Grinding || lv2/10

Greater Deft || lv1/10

Toxicology || lv3/10

Targeting | lv1/10

Stride | lv3/5

Body Strengthening | lv2/5

Acrobatics | lv1/5

Regeneration | lv1/5

Pain res | lv1/5

Active Skills -

Dash | lv2/5

Leap | lv2/5

Power shot | lv1/5

Modularity-

Nervous 150% | Immune 200% | Integumentary 150% | Muscular- 150% | Skeletal- 150% Circulatory 150% | Reproductive 150% |

Wait, I have 28 stat points!?! I completely forgot about that. Hmm, let's do 8 to vitality. 8 to speed, 8 to stamina, 4 to strength.

Strength 28, speed 32, stamina 29, vitality 16

Even though vitality is halved because of the curse, it's still my last line of defense if I manage to get hit. Plus it also determines my defense against disease, ailments, and it affects my regeneration. Really, it's my most important stat. That's why I'm trying to make up for the loss by increasing my speed, afterall, I don't need to worry about my defenses if I never get hit.

Now I need to stop getting side tracked, I need to finish the dome. It's about mid day, but I want to finish fast so I can dissect the wolves in daylight.

Apparently increasing my speed doesn't just apply to my legs, but my hands as well. I finished in less than an hour this time. A combination of my experience and new stat increases. Indeed, I don't feel tired at all thanks to my stamina increase. With the walls done, and a gap for my entrance, it's time for the second last step.

I've tied up hundreds of small bundles of grass, so now I'll tie all of them onto the wooden rafters. This is to keep in heat. After that, ill add a layer of bind leaves to keep out rain.

This is just a personal, untested theory, but this ecosystem seems to be unbalanced. By that, I mean that there is a glaring lack of both bugs, and decomposers. So far, I dont think ive seen aunty flys or mosquitos, which would normally be a good thing, however, I haven't even seen a monsterized version of them. No vultures, very few mushrooms, and little primary consumers in general. This forest seems to consist almost primarily of predators, and a handful of herbivores, like the thicket rabbit I first hunted.

While problematic, it normally wouldn't bother me. But it got me thinking, what if this is why I was brought here? Some sort of natural imbalance is messing with the food chain, which as we all learned in school, can have cataclysmic effects on the whole world.

While thinking of possible suspects, my thoughts naturally go to The Wolf. yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if that thing was responsible for the world dying. But I knew that was an irrational thought. The reason? When I got the achievement for surviving that monster, it was called a [World Guardian]. Which means, it must be some kind of protector right?

While pondering this, I finish up half of the dome, and I walk to the other side to finish up the grass barrier.

I haven't exactly traveled around, but I haven't even found so much as a trace of civilization yet. It makes me wonder.. What if this really is just a world full of monsters. What would I do then?

Naturally, my mind continued to wonder, as I fell into the monotony of continuous, mind numbing labor. The sky had darkened by the time I was done. Not from the time, but from light grey clouds covering the sky. Apparently [high hound] has a knack for telling the weather. It won't rain today, but it will be windy.

I scramble to the pile of bind leaves. I start quickly piling them on, before slowing down. This will be my house for a while, it's important I take it slow and do it right, even if it costs me some precious time.

A bit more time later and I sag on the ground in relief. Not that I was all that tired, but because I was mentally tired of building this stupid hut. I shuffle inside and start mindlessly weaving bind weed into a carpet, while I wait for my status notifications to roll in.

<[Simple crafting] Experience threshold Reached. Lv6 -> Lv9>

<[Greater Deft] Experience threshold Reached. Lv1 -> Lv3>

<[Body Strengthening] Experience threshold Reached. Lv2 -> Lv3>

<[Sense of Self] Experience threshold Reached. Lv5 -> Lv6>

Seems sense of self only levels up when i do something that affects me in some way. As ambiguous as that is. It seems the only reliable way to level it up is some good old fashioned introspection. This’ll be a fun night..

I get bored of weaving about ⅕ of the way done with the mat. I stand up and do some stretches, popping all sorts of bones, alerting the whole forest to how long I've been sitting.

I prod the [tracing] skill with a question, and after a few seconds of buffering, I begin hunting down my new objective. This time, it's a tree. A willow tree, and more specifically, I'm hunting for its leaves. I came across it after running for 15 minutes, my greatly increased speed made the journey a breeze. Its leaves are ghost white, with black veins branching out from its base like a star for an inch before stopping, the leaves themselves are about five to nine inches long.

I brought a large wicker basket I constructed yesterday for gathering purposes, and got to work, stripping almost the entire thing bare. Once satisfied, I sprinted back to base, and managed to get a level in [stride].

“I dub thee; pillow leaves!” I rub my face on the surprisingly soft white leaves. Yep, I plan on using these for my new bed.

But enough dilly dallying. It's time to butcher these damn wolves! I trot over to the neglected pile of wolf carcasses. You can almost not tell they're dead without any flies buzzing around. Well, if not for the myriad of arrows sticking out of all of them. Yeah, I didn't bother to take them out.

As for what I'm gonna do with these things, honestly? I'll probably just skin them. I don't know if wolf meat is edible, but from my experience, I've seen people eat all manner of disgusting things, but never a wolf. Which I find to be good enough evidence to not eat them. Plus I mean, I had dogs back on earth, I feel like it would be disrespectful if I ate wolf meat.

I know that's a naive thought when I'm in a survival situation. But I don't have morals, I'm no better than some wild beast. I'll skin them, I remember from history class, back in the olden days, the fur trade would fetch a pretty penny. Maybe. I just remember furs were sellable, I don't know how profitable they were.

Main point is; ill skin them, make armor and clothes out of them, and mainly, power level my [dismantling] its gone a bit unused lately. And with a hundred of these things, I have no doubt ill rank it up before im halfway through the pile.

First things first I take one of the smaller and weaker wolves and start taking off its pelt. The reason I single out this wolf is so I can familiarize myself with the process. I start at the ankles, disconnecting all the way up to the paw. I cut off its toes and began cutting near the ass. I try not to think about it too much. It helps how engrossed in the process [dismantling] will make you.

I begin working on its face, the process is only a little gruesome, though the occasional splatters of blue blood on the ground is annoying. I cut around the jaw, making fast and precise cuts with my sharp stone knife. Since its made of rock, after a few cuts I have to resharpen it, meaning i'll have to go through quite a few knives to wrap up this process.

With its face loose, I realize I have to hang it up to get the rest of it. Luckily I have plenty of wood left over from building my base. So I quickly whip up a shoddy upside down L made of bound together branches stuck two feet into the ground. It ended up not being strong enough so I put a few ropes from the top into the ground for tension.

The L broke again. Full of frustration I almost screamed until I realized I could just tie it to a tree. I mentally chastised myself over my dumbassery as I moved my tools outside the barricades and hung up the corpse there. After twenty minutes I had completely de-skinned the wolf. I untied the body and put it down, mentally marking that location as a new pile.

One down, one hundred eighty two left. Yep, there were that many. My memorization skills aren't good enough to remember that, I just looked at my status. You see, my status has two tabs. The main one I get when I say status, and the other tab comes up when I check notifications. Essentially, the second tab shows my history of all the messages it's sent me, minus the ones I got before my dislocation. Well, second dislocation.

I scrolled through it and looked at the kill notifications. After the beast's level and name, it tells me how many of them I killed. Also, I tried to expand the messages to show me every individual kill, and uh, that was a mistake. But I did learn something interesting. As I level up, the amount of xp I get from the same level of beast decreases. So not only does the amount of xp I need to level up increase with each level, but the amount I receive dwindles. But only within five levels. If a beast is three levels weaker than me, I get the same amount of xp as before I leveled up. But if it's six or above, the xp continuously dwindles. It looks like after a fifteen level difference I stop getting xp entirely.

Not that that's too bad, I have to go for the big guys anyway, since souls are my source of modularity. The size of souls seems loosely based around level. I'm not sure what else it could be besides level though.. It's fine, I have a very elementary understanding of monsters in the first place. More knowledge will come with both time and experience.

Speaking of xp, Its time for some serious [dismantling] power leveling. The sun has just about hit dusk, so ill see how many wolves I can dice up in that time.

--- 3 hours later

It's getting dark now, not that it bothers me too much. I can still see much better than a human can in the dark, but it's still not perfect. It's harder to pick out fine details and color. Plus, seeing slight movement in the distant forest becomes impossible now that everything is in shadow.

Not to say that I didn't get anything done in the last three or so hours.

<[Grinding] Experience threshold Reached. Lv2 -> Lv5>

<[Dismantling] Experience threshold Reached. Lv2 -> Lv5>

< [1st] Tier [Dismantling] Has ranked up into [2nd] tier: [Intermediate Dismantling]- majorly improved dismantling, with more precise and intuitive instructions and a wider range of dismantling templates. Increases handling ability for higher level materials, such as fur and scales.>

<[Intermediate Dismantling] Experience threshold Reached. Lv1 -> Lv3>

< [Intermediate Dismantling] will be abbreviated to [Int Dismantling] >

A solid upgrade in skill quality. I remember when I killed that thicket lizard, I had the feeling I couldn’t use it. Now, I'm sure that problem is solved.

It is now almost night, the moon now visible. I've turned in for the night. I'll just finish the wicker-mat for my floor, and then set up my bed. I slowly start drifting to sleep as I continue mindlessly folding the stiffened bindweed over each other. I stiffened it with horse fruit glue btw. Since connecting this mesh in a circular pattern sounds like hell, I'm going to put it off for tomorrow.

As I set up my white leaf bed, I think about what ill do tomorrow.

First of all, these leaves are super comfy, but I need a pillow. I collect a bunch of excess leaves into a pile and dunk my heavy head onto it. I need to.. “yawwwn~” make a furnace, something to cook food and trap heat better. Then I need.. Storage, I should make mud bricks. Actually, wouldn't it be easier to just chisel rocks into bricks.. Would that work? Then.. I need.. To find… metal…..

Unable to sustain my thoughts, the last wisp of energy leaves my body and I drift into the warm embrace of well deserved sleep.