Day 86

I had managed to find a decently large crack within the third split valley wall. However it didn't go very far. It was higher up, with a downward angled entrance. It was perfect except for the size, so I grabbed a rock and began hitting it against the wall, slowly chipping away at it piece by piece. Surely, since there are skills, if I just keep doing this I would earn a mining skill of some type, right? So for the morning I would mine against the wall in the crack, then at noon I headed down to the beach with a sharpened stick to try to gather food.

As of yet, I had no luck. The fish were very fast. Maybe I needed to build a trap, or a fishing rod, or just get better at spearfishing… but whatever I went with, fish wasn't my main source of food yet.

That would be shellfish. All I had to do was find some tidepools and it's free season to just grab up anything that crawls. Throw em in the fire and crack em open, easy as pie.

At night I began to work on my survival crafting by carving wood with the dagger, trying to make some tools, and even earthenware. This eventually became my routine.

Day 95

So far, my days in the new shelter had been going decently well. I followed the routine I set for myself and have made some progress. Just hitting the rock against the wall didn't earn me anything, but when I tied a sharp rock to a stick and swung it, I had earned the [Mining] skill after a while. Thankfully the effects were noticeable. I felt my eyes become sharper and my hands steadier as I swung the pickaxe, a feeling in the back of my head letting me know which areas were good to strike.

As for fishing, it was still a tedious job, but my reflexes for stabbing the fish with the spear gradually improved. Still, so far I had only managed maybe one out of every twenty fish I tried for. Trying to make a fishing pole had similar results. While the pole itself was easy to craft, I kept struggling with the hook and rope. The hook I could make from bones, but it either snapped when bitten or when pulled on. Maybe my crafting skill was still too low, but I had to be careful not to use too many bones on just fishing hooks.

The rope was another matter. It was simply snapping sometimes, or I would fail a knot and it would drift away altogether.

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The last of my routines I was currently the most proud of was that I had gotten quite good at carving wood and grinding rock. Plates, bowls, spoons… while they were a bit crude they got the job done well enough that I felt happy about them.

I still struggled to find something to boil water in however, and for that I needed to get my earthenware better. I could make the shapes decent enough, but the hardening part was where I was lacking. They kept cracking or splitting. It seemed like I would have to try and fire them to get it right, but trying to make a kiln was a heavy task, even with my crafting skills I had begun to gather. I could still only form a vague idea of how a kiln worked.

When it came to a hook, or a plate, or even making a spear and fishing trap, the knowledge just flowed into me, like I had always known how to make it. For this though, I would need a lot of trial and error.

Day 102

I’m tired of shellfish, I hate them. I was catching fish too infrequently to stop my reliance on shellfish, and just foraging berries and fruit alone didn’t yield enough to fulfill me. I could start setting up traps around the area, but those also didn’t yield a guaranteed result.

I needed to start a farm… yeah, that was it, grab some seeds, plow the field, and get planting! I had tons of seashells to make fertilizer so why not? I’m sure there’s farming skills as well, maybe I could identify food or make it grow faster. I had already expanded the cave by a few feet, so a nice change to farming in the morning instead sounded nice. Certainly more entertaining at the very least. I also planned to swap from wood carving at night to try sewing. I heard fishbones were sewing needles back in the day, so I wanted to try and make a sort of poncho out of the pink feathers.

They were really tough! I tried cutting one with my knife and I could barely scratch it, so I was sure they'd be good for defense if something did try to attack me despite the scent on it. Although I wasn't really sure how to make the poncho... I'd just have to figure it out when I got to it.

For practice sewing though, I would need to hunt for some hide. What would I even make? Clothes, maybe a hat or pouch? In any case, I'll need to add setting hunting traps to my schedule as well. I needed every bit of food coming in that I could get. Most of the creatures around here can break them easily, but if even one works, that's good enough for me.

Gods my days were getting busy.

Day 110

I caught a rabbit. My traps have gotten better. All this work has kept me busy from sunrise to sunset. At least it's kept me not thinking.

I've found that in the nights before I slept, my mind has begun to wander, thoughts I'd rather not elaborate on fill my mind. My death, my family, my pets, the comforts of my old life… I just needed to keep working… As long as I focused on other stuff, as long as I kept my mind and body moving, I was fine… I was fine. Because I kept telling myself so.

Because I had to be.