Flattened mountains [an unknown location in the new world], local time [1793.10.07 1793.09.30]
It took him two days to prepare everything for transportation, and two more to transport everything to the site. For the camp, he chose a place on the ridge with a view of the pass. He was still able to see the pass exit, almost a kilometer to the south, so he should have ample time to react in case of an attack.
He used a primitive wooden sled made from branches to transport heavier tools and quite a weight of firewood. The first thing he needed to do, before even trying to go into the caves, was to make himself some clothes. His armor was glowing, he needed to cover it or risk being visible at all times. To that effect, he prepared a wooden rack to stretch skins, crude cords made from flexible bark, and a number of wooden tools for the occasion.
He built himself a shelter by pounding sharpened sticks into the ground and stretching his waterproof fabric between them to make a roof. For the walls, he used smaller sticks. The roof was at an angle, to funnel the rainwater into a basin at the back. He stacked firewood along the walls to have better isolation and to stabilize the construct. It never rained for long on this mountain, so he was sure the wood won’t get soaked to the point of being useless.
The shelter wasn’t big enough to lie down straight, but he planned to sleep while sitting either way. He still was waking up fully aware, and this position was better for self-defense.
He placed a wide stump stripped of bark into the shelter to keep it dry, then arranged his tools inside. Next, he assembled a huge wooden frame made from four double-Y-shaped branches. After adding some branches at the back to keep it vertical, a primitive wooden rack was ready.
Seven big wooden basins were placed around the hut. Each was carved from a single piece of wood.
He prepared a standard stone circle for a fireplace, but then he assembled a huge wooden tripod above it. He set another one, higher than him even, to the side of the hut.
The wooden sled, the water condenser, and a few logs were placed behind the camp.
When the sun was slowly disappearing behind the horizon, he stepped back a little to admire his work.
“This looks more like the beginning of a settlement than a temporary camp,” he commented, satisfied.
“Grrrrruuu”, whined the Garuan.
“Oh, don’t be so negative! You just need to develop other means to see,” he consoled it. “Or you can buy an eye for yourself from the Exchange. The Biological Implants and Upgrades sections were quite vast. You even have your ‘roots’ around my head, I wouldn’t say no to a third eye.”
“Graar?”
“Ugh… Yea, that’s a good question. Well, I am sure the System prepared some way of exchanging unlocked items from the Exchange. It would be stifling for the society, otherwise,” he said with fake confidence.
“Gra,” it answered cynically.
“Haaah, yea. Sorry, I sometimes forget we are not exactly just talking. Look, we will find a way. Even if it doesn’t work like that, we have options. Starting with mine upgrades,” he said, this time quite sure it was true.
“Gru!” it agreed this time.
Overusing Soul-memory by showing the visuals was quite dangerous, so they banned it. Their Tabu and Interface Skills were already high enough.
“Well, it’s getting late, so let’s finish this up. I don’t think it will be raining anytime soon,” He said, looking at the cloudless sky.
The strange thing about the weather here was that the clouds traveled at many different altitudes, and the type of rain depended on the altitude itself. From small, white clouds at a low altitude, a warm summer rain would fall. The higher the altitude, the colder would be the rain, but also less intense. He even once witnessed a hail, but even if the dark clouds were enormous, only a wet sludge made it to the plateau. Only the dark clouds below the mountains stayed unmoved, almost like a part of the landscape itself.
Before going to sleep, he started using the ‘Condense water’ Spell above one of the basins. He would need a lot of water in the coming days.
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The next morning has come, this time silent without the birds’ songs. His body was quite stiff from sleeping in the sitting position on the hard ground, so before anything else, he did some basic exercises and stretches.
Feeling better, he started preparing breakfast. “Morning, Gru,” he said absentmindedly to his companion, feeling as it came out of the meditation.
“Grrra,” it greeted him.
“You sure are lucky, to only have to sleep for three hours,” he commented. “Anything interesting?”
“Gre,” came the negative vibration.
“A shame, I hope we will find some answers soon. This is quite restricting.”
Gru was also producing his own ‘cloud of Mana’. It needed to get it outside through the Source Net, as its ‘roots’ near his skin weren’t able to funnel everything out, even if it concentrated on the action. But that wasn’t a problem by itself. The problem was, Gru produced much less Mana than Zeph. Without an option to separate their Mana, Gru’s Mana perception was diluted by the overwhelming Mana-Z to the point of it being unable to use it at all. So it also couldn’t construct Spells. It theoretically could use Matrix Skills, but Gru’s Mana capacity was an effective zero. Or a theoretical infinity, when taking into account its ability to ‘crystallize’ Mana. It didn’t matter, every scrap of Mana that stayed in its body had its use, there was no capacity it could use. If not for the System Passive Enhancements, Gru wouldn’t even have Mana regeneration to form a Mana bubble.
It was a parasite. It was understandable. Releasing Mana into a host’s body could have deadly consequences for both sides, so it was not built for that. But it was a waste. All that Mana that Gru was taking in should be somewhere, but was inaccessible instead.
Zeph was unable to read into the ‘Ancient Civilizations’ deep enough. As a result, both of them didn’t have any idea of what was happening with the capacity and the ‘crystallization’.
“But enough of that! We are not trained to work together magically either way. It’s good enough that you can use Soul techniques, and stun anything near me. We have more serious things to do today,” he declared.
Today was the day of hunting their first Talpa. The last one was killed, evidently, but definitely not hunted.
Zeph loaded the ‘special packages’ on the sled, squishy things wrapped in big leaves. Then he prepared his weapons and a small backpack, determination in his eyes and in the slow vibrations in his chest.
He couldn’t see any Talpa from the ridge, so he started moving to the pass. The early sun was reflecting from the countless blades of grass, painting a mesmerizing view on the flat plains and motivating him even more. He needed to get out of here.
He unloaded the packages at the entrance to the pass and lifted the sled. The vibrations from moving it on the rock could potentially compromise him. Then, he started a slow descent.
He stopped from time to time to listen. The Talpa fights were loud, but he wanted to make sure to stay away from them.
After almost 20 minutes, he finally came close to the familiar cave entrance.
He stopped a good 30 meters away and started his preparations. He placed the sled on the ground and knelt down. He moved the spearhead closer to his body and started the process of Enchanting it with the Harden Spell enclosed in the Self-Sustaining construct.
Five minutes later, the enchantment was ready. He took out two smoke/smell bombs and slowly moved closer, scanning the air with a feeler and starting the ‘stealth’ mode of the Ambient Mana channeling. Stopping 10 meters before the cave, he started to construct the ‘Lesser Life detection’ Spell. After 5 seconds, it finally fired, and immediately after, Zeph frowned.
No Life-Mana near the cave? He thought. No, let’s use the old designation, the ‘Mana-X’, it’s misleading otherwise. Anyway, something’s wrong. Semantic problems aside, he had a decision to make. The accumulated Mana in the burrow should be leaking outside. Its absence should mean the Bearats were dead, but as with any unexpected situations, he couldn’t be sure.
What would I do for one drone, dammit! he thought while moving closer. He used the feeler again, bending it to check the inside. It still returned nothing.
What the actual fuck?
In the end, he had to take some risks. He placed the bombs back in the backpack and took out his pistol, then moved near to the entrance. He glanced inside, almost like a Hollywood movie character, just holding a spear in the other hand instead of keeping his pistol in both hands.
And was totally surprised.
A cave-in? No, wait… He constructed the Space-Mana cone, filled it with the Ambient Mana channeling vortex using Will-Mana, and placed the ‘Mana highlight’ in a simplified version at the tip. A Flashlight illuminated the ceiling after a moment. I need to find a better name for the channeling, what a mouthful!
Most of the created light had the same vector as the moving Mana, thus creating a light cone. The optimized System version was actually more complicated because it didn’t make use of the Will-Mana readily accessible to him.
Yep, they fucking blocked the entrance intentionally. I wonder if the System message warned them. Or is it just their instincts? Well, nothing to do here, he decided and moved to the next cave, setting everything in the same manner.
Oi! If every cave is closed, I will have to go into the storm clouds! Don’t do this to me, dudes! I was preparing for you for fucking four months! Why are you even opening those caves, if you need to close them again every half a year?!
Aaaah… I need to calm down, whatever the reason, these are just animals, he thought, breathing deeply and sobering up.
The third cave was accessible, luckily for his sanity. He felt the Mana-O with his feeler and confirmed it with the ‘Lesser Life detection’.
Ok, time to hunt.
“Gru?” he whispered, almost imitating his Soul-bond.
“Grmmmm,” answered the soft vibrations.
Good, he thought while moving closer. He stopped a meter before the entrance, hugging the wall to evade the Mana-X. The name was actually useful. Then, he started to construct the Telekinesis Spell. He placed the smoke/smell ball on one end, using enough force with his finger on the other side to make it float, then slowly moved the construct. He needed to compensate for the movement, but he trained with it enough to not make a mistake.
He slowly placed the bomb on the ground before the cave, just in the range of Mana-O coming from inside, and started pumping more Mana-Z into the place through the connection, shaping it into a parody of a small animal. At the same time, he prepared to throw the second ball.
The primitive shape was enough to make the Bearat interested. He couldn’t feel if it prepared to pounce, but once it did, he was ready.
With a low grunt, the Bearat charged at the bomb. The moment Zeph heard its heavy steps, he used the Matrix version of ‘Lesser Ignite’ on the fungi cap. The first bomb ignited almost instantly, thanks to the strange fungi being extremely flammable when dry, the dry leaves around only sped up the process. After a second, it basically exploded into the face of the pouncing beast.
It took a long second for the confused Bearat to register the pungent smell, enough time to ignite the second bomb and throw it behind it, into the cave entrance. When it started to retch and turned around to run, Zeph fired another Matrix Spell and moved. The Second bomb exploded just inside the entrance, and not even half a second later a Flash appeared just before the Bearat’s face.
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Stripped of its senses, and with a smell barrier ahead, the Bearat tried to stop his dash. The momentum carried it for a meter, and then Zeph struck from behind.
The disturbingly long limbs were its weak point. Zeph attacked in one fluid motion, and the razor-sharp spearhead slashed through the tendons behind both knees of its back legs. The Bearat was down, but now knew where its opponent was.
Or so it thought.
It flexed its body to the back, sweeping its front paw with all the power it could, but Zeph was already at its side and out of reach. Gru Soul-whacked it, while Zeph thrust his spear into its neck, basically cutting through.
He made a small mistake by stepping forward along with the thrust. The attack made the Bearat shake off the stun. It reacted almost immediately, swiping in his general direction and clipping his leg. The attack was too weak to really harm him, but he lost his balance and crashed to the ground. He didn’t let go of his spear, though, and the movement wrenched the Bearat’s head at a strange angle, making it claw weakly at the spear shaft instead. Zeph quickly retracted the spear and rolled away in the same motion. Standing up, he prepared for another thrust, but the animal had already fallen to the ground, only moving slightly.
Oxygen deprivation of the brain seems to be setting a little quicker… I need to remember this side effect of PE. Shouldn’t it be slower, though? he thought, thrusting the spear into its brain from below its jaw. It spasmed a few times, then stopped moving.
You have killed [Giant Talpa – lvl 53].
You have earned [Soul fragments]!
You have earned 1 [Universal Point]!
Easy! he thought victoriously.
He quickly moved the body to the sled and started jogging back up with it behind. The lingering smell of bombs should hold the pack for a time, but it won’t last long. The blood trail he was leaving behind would guide them straight to his camp. Assuming they would follow.
He stopped at the pass exit and opened two of the ‘special packages’. He threw one of the featherless dead birds down the steps and placed the second one near the entrance to the pass. Then, he continued straight into the camp. It took him maybe 15 minutes to get back.
He looked at the pass from above, the Bearats still weren’t present. Good, It should keep them away for another half an hour, at least.
He tied the front limbs of the Bearat to its body and strapped a rope around its ankles. Then he moved the sled under the big tripod he prepared beforehand and flipped the rope through its tip. He swore, trying to pull up the body, but after a few minutes, it was dangling upside down. He quickly set his metal canteen under it. The neck wound he did was big enough to dry the animal out of blood, so he just waited.
I didn’t take that into account… Well, a razor-sharp spearhead will do that, I suppose.
He waited for a minute for the canteen to fill while checking the pass below. The Bearats were trying to move out of the cave, but the pungent smell still made them reconsider. They couldn’t do much without their sense, either way. But he was almost out of time. He changed the canteen for a wooden basin and closed it. The half-filled pot was placed on the sled and Zeph sped up in the direction of the pass.
When he got there, he immediately started to unpack the dead birds, wetting them in the Talpa’s blood before throwing them in random directions. Then he started to circle in the vicinity with the open canteen on the sled. It was lying at an angle, spilling blood everywhere. After making a few half circles, he sped up in the direction of the towers, left a few birds there, and circled to his right, to make it to the pass from an opposing direction to his camp.
It sounds like a lot of time, but he managed it in around 15 minutes, with the last 10 minutes spent away from the pass entrance. When coming from the south, he was wary, but no Bearats made it to the plateau yet. They were still struggling, probably. He moved along the widest half-circle to not leave more traces, then closed his canteen and lifted the sled.
He did a big circle to enter his camp from the back.
After setting the sled, he started observing the pass from above, and was surprised. The Bearats evidently wanted to hunt him, three of them were checking the vicinity, but none of them moved in the direction of the pass entrance.
Good for me, let’s hope the lure works. There were many uncertain parts in his plan, but with the smoke bombs, he was sure to at least be able to escape if the worst come to the worst.
Instead of wasting time, he decided to prepare his first hunted animal. One could think it would just increase the smell of blood and lure the Bearats to the camp. That wasn’t a bad assumption. Only, Zeph was on a ridge above the pass those animals tried to travel.
He got rid of all the insides by throwing them directly at the pass from above, then used the blood to make a few more circles around the pass entrance. The Bearats, it seemed, weren’t in a hurry to go to the plateau.
After skinning the animal, he placed the fresh skin in the water. Then, he started roasting all the meat he could, throwing away unnecessary parts.
He was at all times wary, but nothing attacked him just yet.
It seems they really are nocturnal, he thought. It seems the night will be quite interesting. He grinned deviously.
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In the middle of the night, a high-pitched scream resounded. But the mayhem in the distance only started.
Zeph was awake, he could stay a night or two without sleep, and for sure wasn’t going to risk it.
He was smiling right now, the screams a music to his ears.
You have killed [Giant Talpa – lvl 51].
You have earned [Soul fragments]!
Sadly, they were too far away for Gru to get more Soul fragments.
These fungi really are something else, he thought and started reminiscing.
He found a few strange plants during his scouting time in the town. Every time he found something new, he consulted his ‘Corora herbarium’. It saved his life more than a few times.
You have killed [Giant Talpa – lvl 54].
You have earned [Soul fragments]!
In that time, he had found three special mushrooms. Or rather, he had found a few colonies of mushrooms, but all of them were dead, except a single specimen in three colonies. How they even got there, he couldn’t tell. Perhaps due to some past events, but they really shouldn’t be able to grow there in the first place.
Those three mushrooms—
You have killed [Giant Talpa – lvl 52].
You have earned [Soul fragments]!
—were of the same species. Extremely toxic, even without System’s enhancements, as they were entities without a Soul. One of them could kill him two times over, if touched.
‘So, why not weaponize them?’ he thought at the time. Easier said than done, the process of nurturing them to keep them alive wasn’t easy already, but using them? Let’s just say Zeph spent a good two months devising a—
You have kill…
STOP INTERRUPTING ME! he screamed internally. And looked furiously at the notification.
Nothing moved anymore.
Ahem. Let’s just say Zeph spent a good two months devising a method to at least gather them safely.
During his relocation preparation time, he cut all three of them. He even managed to cut them into parts without killing himself. But from the fear of their toxins becoming inactive, he only cut them in fours, then placed them in the raw carcasses of birds, to keep them ‘alive’ a little longer. Why meat, you may ask? Let’s just say, the soil under them was full of small bones. Also, a thing that his ‘Corora herbarium’ confirmed.
He also hoped the Bearats didn’t chew that much. It would be a waste if they just vomited it out. The fungi were theoretically tasteless, but bodily reactions existed for a reason.
He wasn’t sure how that would work until this day. Or night.
On the other hand, he was sure they would try to eat the meat. They were cannibalistic, which means there aren’t many sources of meat in their habitat. He confirmed it during his scouting days, they were eating everything without thinking.
He spent the rest of the night keeping guard, but after the mayhem finished, only silence prevailed for the whole night. He spent that time filling more basins with water.
When the first rays of sun started to reflect in the dew on the grass plateau, he got up.
He couldn’t see the Bearats on the pass, so he took his sled and moved to the pass entrance, weapons at the ready.
Before the stairs, three dead Bearats were lying. In their death throes, they upturned the surrounding soil, testifying to just how painful their deaths were.
Zeph packed them on the sled and moved to the camp to leave them there. His increased strength and ‘Lesser Metabolic enhancement’ allowed him to do that quite easily.
He got back to the pass to check the stairs and found two more not far away from the entrance. He decided against checking the rest of the stairs, that much was already enough. The risk was unnecessary.
Back at the camp, he got to work.
Firstly, he skinned one of the poisoned Bearats and placed the skin in another water basin. He wasn’t going to try to eat its meat, to be on the safe side, but before throwing the body from the ridge he needed one more thing. He scalped it and used his hammer/hatchet to crack the skull to get the brain, then placed it in one of the canteens and in a basin with water, to keep it relatively cool.
Next, he removed the barkless stump from the hut and placed it on its round side. He took out yesterday’s skin from the water and wrapped it a few times around two branches. Locking one branch by stepping on it, he rotated the second one to squeeze the skin and get rid of the surplus water. He then placed the skin on the stump, fur down, and used his knife to remove the fat and flesh still clinging to it. He was moving his knife at a low angle on the stretched-out skin, scraping off unnecessary tissue and leaving only white skin behind.
After that was finished, he sprinkled the fur with ashes from his fireplace, and placed it into another basin of water, adding even more ashes to the mix. This should loosen the hairs.
He started to skin and ‘debrain’ the rest of the animals. By the time he finished, the first soaking skin from poisoned Bearat was ready for ‘fleshing’.
That evening, after preparing all of them, he was looking at his meaty dinner with a small disgust.
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Tanning was hard work. After getting rid of the hairs the next day, a process very similar to the ‘fleshing’, he had to soak them again, but this time in the brain emulsion. It was quite easy to create, he just needed to mash the brains in warm water. He soaked them for only 8 hours, to be able to finish quickly. But the next step made his joints squirm in protest.
He had to stretch the skin on the wooden frame. He did that by creating small holes along the skin edges with his knife, then threading his primitive twine through them and around the frame. Then, for a good few hours, he had to scratch the skin with a wooden tool resembling a big spoon, to keep it flexible. After around three hours, it dried completely and could be taken off the stretching rack. He had to flex it some more on a tip of a branch, to make sure every part was softened.
After that, he had to place the skin on the tripod above the fireplace, creating a half-open tent above the fire. He was using grass to keep the fire at bay, he wanted to smoke the hide, not to burn it. The process took more hours and had to be done for both sides, but it made the skin waterproof to a degree.
Only then could he start to work on clothes. After so much hard labor, he was extra cautious. He didn’t want to make a mistake and waste the materials. The twine would be a weak point, so he disassembled a long part of his rope to create a more sturdy thread beforehand. Simple needles created from birds’ bones he had prepared a long time ago, too.
As the finishing touch, he applied a dark violet oil to impregnate the leather. He used a type of fungi, again, to change the color. He wanted his clothes to be as dark as possible.
He cut the time where he could. Still, it took 7 days to finish everything.
Time estimation for the event beginning: 2d, 16h.
But when looking at two pairs of leather trousers, two leather jackets, and one big overcoat with a hood and fur on the inside, he couldn’t help but feel proud. Even if the workmanship was a little shoddy.
The System agreed, too.
Congratulations! You have gained new [General Skill], [Leatherworking] from the [Knowledge Base]!
New methods derived from the learning process. [Soul fragments] awarded!
“Finally, all preparations are finished!” he exclaimed.
“Grrrra!” the vibrations happily answered.
“It was more work than I thought. But it was necessary work! We are fresh and prepared. Let’s pack and see what those caves are about.”
“Geh,” it shrugged.
“Right. Let me see what it’s about, and then describe it to you!” he corrected himself.
“Gra!”
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