I take about five steps away from the shallow clearing before I realize.
I forgot to make arrows.
I walk back, set down my bow again and start gathering more giant leaves for what I like to call ‘Bind Weed’ along with small stones and sticks.
I started to sharpen the small stones into rudimentary arrow heads. My boosted stats made the job less arduous but kept its tediousness. After all, my ability evolved but not my technique, so the result still sucked despite the reduced time, and pain.
I used the “stone knife” to make small divots in the sides of the arrow heads, then I used the bindweed to combine the head and the shaft, which were short and straight sticks that I stripped of their bark.
I Made about five before a purple window opened in front of me and caught my attention. I mostly just looked at it so I could let my neck rest a little, it hurt from looking down for so long.
<[Primitive Crafting] Experience threshold Reached. Lv1 -> Lv2>
The knowledge the skill granted me expanded a little. Now, instead of it telling me I needed to use fletching, it was telling me why I needed it. Basically It'll be inaccurate without feathers.
Unfortunately for me, I haven't seen any chickens around. Actually, the only animals I've seen are a few larger than average lizards and brightly colored bugs. Of course, I can hear a lot more stuff than that, mainly the leaves brushing against each other and wood groaning from the wind.
But also birds, although their cries have lessened now that it's gotten a bit darker, the sky was pink now.
I should leave soon.
I finished up 20 Incomplete arrows. I get up to start my search.
Lucky for me, there's an alternative to feathers I have dubbed Aero leaves. Supposedly they're pretty rare but I'm in the exact biome they live in, a short search later I collect like 40 of them, and I stuff them in my pockets along with my arrows and bindweed spool. I'm glad I wore cargo pants.
I quickly Bind the aero leaves to 10 arrows and then use
I'm a late 2000's boy raised in AC who gets all his food from a store. I set down my bow, defeated. I can't kill another living being.
The rabbit starts to hop away.
I reflect.
I'm weak. A little boost to my stats and I'm on cloud nine. I'm naive. I'm in a terrible situation, a 16 year old in a forest alone with nothing but a sassy computer to throw me a bone once in a while. How will I start a fire? What if there's no humans here? I need food, water, and shelter but I can't even snipe a rabbit.
…Earlier, when I was looking at the skill shop, there was one skill I wanted but didn't get. Both to save my points in case I needed them and because the description was vague. I think I'll dip into my savings just for this one.
<[Will] purchased>
I feel no difference, I feel no power in my mind or body. But this time, when I pull the bowstring taught, I let the arrow fly. The rabbit turns right as it pierces through its skull, the head poking through its destroyed eyes. It falls limp.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I feel sick to my stomach, as I walk over to the rabbit, I claim my prize, hoisting up the massive rabbit and I lug it home, to do whatever is next.
< Deep Root Rabbit Slain 134 XP acquired>
< you have leveled up! LV1 -> Lv2 | +1 SkP +3 StP>
It sure doesn't feel like a victory.
---
I'm back at the clearing now, and the sky is black, the moon has come up. But strangely, it's not very dark. Glowing dots shining sky blue float up lazily from the grass, lightning bugs laced with static electricity race around the trees, and the strange colored markings on the bark glow bright white in some places. The moon seems more blue than the one on earth, I'm not sure if it's always this big but it covers a 4th of the sky. Seems the forest is more lively at night.
The emptiness that slowly went away washes over me all at once as I realize what I need to do, [Primitive Crafting] tells me I can use this rabbit for all sorts of things, but when it comes to getting them all of my skills are lost, I have 2 skill points now, so Ill purchase the [Dismantling] Skill. Let's get this over with.
I started to go over the steps in my head, and realized my stone "knife” might not be cut out for this, so I sharpened it a lot more.
By the time I was done, the knife was whittled down about 30%, now I could wrap my fingers around the entire thing, so maybe this wasn't a huge mistake? We’ll see.
Knowledge files into my head, but not too much. I learn how to properly sharpen stuff, it's not as difficult as something like tracking or archery, which would require talent to use. Any schmuck can sharpen a rock. Although the warm feeling of knowing new things is dulled, to my dismay.
Butcher time!
I made a notch in the rabbit's hide, near its spine. Then I ripped it off its meat, peeling it back like a sock, surprisingly not as gruesome as you might imagine. The rip was beneath its neck, so when I pulled down on the fur the head remained covered and didn't pull on the part I was extracting. I plucked the fur off the legs, the feet remained.
It took a bit of struggle, considering the example I was looking at was ¼ of the size of the large specimen I was currently desecrating. The dismantling skill was great, but a few notches below perfect. The directions were kinda like a WikiHow article. A Lot of Pictures, though of course, it's not like this was a real image inside my head, it was more like spoken words I had never heard before, that I translated into images to make them understandable. It's weird, but I can manage.
My survival instincts have switched on, and the guilt that swallowed me whole had vanished entirely.
I ripped off the tail, and pulled up the neck fur that was still on the rabbit, I moved it over its head and it's busted eyes, I had removed the dull arrow before I started. I popped the foot joints and snapped off all four of its feet, about the size of my palm fingers not included. Then I cut off the head, making the rabbit completely hairless now, [Primitive crafting] congratulated me, telling me it would make useful material. A normal rabbit could cover your forearm but this bad boy could turn into a warm jacket.
Now, the hunger was really setting in, and I cast aside my disgust, as I began gutting the sack of meat. I had it layed out on some of the huge leaves I got bind weed from, bind leaves if you will.
I split the pelvis, avoiding the bladder and lower intestine. Then I dived in and grabbed the heart. I tore the heart out, taking the kidneys with it, a huge clot of bloodied organs hung from the carcass in my hands.
<[Will] Experience threshold Reached. Lv1 -> Lv2>
I cut through the flank and ribs, it was a part that didn't have much meat, I didn't need [dismantling] to tell me that much. I pop the ball joint and rip off the legs, which was the bulk of the meat. I get the shoulder and cut the saddle into two pieces. I lay the dismantled pieces on the bed of leaves in a symmetrical pattern, I'll throw the head far away later.
And now I am done. About an hour thirty minutes of back breaking labor later, probably, I don't have much of an internal clock. I wonder If there's a skill for that? but now I need to start a fire, from what I remember of my camping trips with my dad on Earth, this would be a slog.
Tentatively, I nudge my [Tracking] skill, and ask if there's another way to start a fire. It buffers for a second, then starts leading me on a wild goose chase, taking random twists and turns, I stop thinking useless thoughts as my stomach rumbles once again.
<[Tracking] Experience threshold Reached. Lv1 -> Lv2>
Suddenly, the hazy directions it gives me straightens up, and I start going a more normal route. Later, I come across this weird looking flower, It has this grainy triangular prism It's holding with its three, surprisingly thick anthers. The prism glowed in weak pulses of orange. A small bead of power encased in the orange crystal, going from the tiny bead to glowing the entire prism and back again, continuously. I take it.
It feels warm, and when it pulses it gets almost unbearably hot for a split second before returning to a hand warmer. I use [tracking] and go back to my clearing, gathering dry sticks on the way.
The clearing itself was of the same sandstone of the much larger clearing I first found myself in. The clearing was a 6 inch depression in the ground at a moderately steep angle, roots and vines snake down and rest on the sandstone, lining the edges. The clearing itself was about 10 feet wide and in an L shape. The rabbit carcass was at the top of the L which had a sloppy circle at the end. I plan to put the fire at the opposite end, over in the short lower part of L, which ends in a rough semi circle.
I get back and hop down into the depression, admonishing myself when I almost land on the rabbit, I walk over to the planned fire zone and begin lining small stones in a circle and setting up the tipi of sticks. I then set the… ‘Fire source’ In the center and cover it in some dry leaves for kindling, then I watch and wait.
A few minutes later and the fire source had worked its magic, literally. The glorified pile of sticks was now smoldering with malignant energy. I made a primitive spit roast with some large stones I hefted over to use as support and a few sturdy branches which I hung the back leg over, then I waited.
The smell of cooking meat was agony to my churning stomach, but after 30 minutes of waiting, cutting, turning, and slobbering, I had cubed rabbit on a bindleaf in front of me. The meat was dry and unseasoned, and yet, It was the best thing I ever tasted. I hope I don't get food poisoning.
I set up a bed of bind leaves as a tarp and some soft-ish grass, it sucked but I was too tired to care.
As I drifted off to sleep, my mind wandered.
The rabbit meat will rot eventually, I need to level up and get new food. I need to level my skills and buy new ones. When I wake up… I need to find out what [Modularity] Means.