Immediately upon entering the forest, she noticed how different it felt compared to in her other form; it felt almost as if the forest welcomed her back home. Despite not having been in this part of the forest before, it already felt like she knew this place’s exact location in the forest, at least to the extent of always being able to find back while in this forest. “Holy hell.” The feeling was so overwhelming that she couldn’t help but curse, but in a good way. “Yep, I think made the right choice in picking this form for fighting.”
As she walked through the forest, she noticed that despite now being an elf, the animals still avoided her, something part of her had hoped wasn’t the case after she entered the forest, but it was expected. With her now looking for good sticks without having to care for if she could carry them some unknown distance, it wasn’t all that hard to find long enough sticks.
Granted, while it wasn’t hard to find sticks at at least a length she thought suitable for a spear, the majority of them were either too long or too thick, if not both, which made them unwieldy and too heavy. Despite all of that, she took one that could work if needed, but for now it was relegated to be a walking stick, as it was a bit too thick and heavy for anything she’d like to swing around and be precise with.
Over the next hour or so, not a lot really happened. Sylvia found a couple green berries that felt edible to her, probably due to her racial ability, so she took a handful with her. Of everything that happened, the last thing she found was most definitely the most important, a stick of a length and thickness that she deemed suitable for a spear, but as she was about to pick it up, she realized that she had berries in one hand and a long stick in the other. As she didn’t like the thought of completely throwing a backup away, she rested the two sticks on her shoulder and held them together with one hand, before making her way back to the cave in a direct line.
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When Sylvia got back, it was luckily the case that there were no animal tracks near her cave, which she thought of as a good sign regarding her use of the cave. A quick look at the sun also told her that evening was approaching, which meant that she had to hurry up if she wanted to gather a couple more things. So, she quickly unloaded the two sticks and berries, before setting off for the forest again.
This time, she just had to collect some smaller sticks and other burnables to use as fuel for a campfire, if she could make one, and some big leaves to use as a makeshift pillow, so a couple quick trips did the trip. After returning, she quickly gathered some of the drier tufts of grass she could find. Inside the cave, she gathered some of the rocks lying around and made a ring for the fire in the center, where she then placed most of the smallest and driest sticks and bark.
Then came the time to prove if she had just wasted her time or not. She grabbed one of the larger pieces of wood and used a rock to dig a little divot, where she then placed some of the dry grass. With a sigh to clear her mind, she took the straight, thin stick she had prepared, placed it in the middle of the divot, and began moving her hands back and forth as quickly as she could. ‘Please say I do it right. PLEASE!’
It took long, too long in her mind, but as her arms got close to telling her to give up, a little red shine caught her eye, and by pushing herself a bit more, small embers had begun to form in the grass. “YES!!” She called out loud, before realizing that she had to hurry up before it went out. With controlled breaths, she blew on the embers until the grass eventually caught fire. She quickly grabbed some more grass and placed it on top to keep the fire from going out, before moving it over to the firepit, where she rearranged some of the sticks to hopefully make them catch fire, which they did.
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“FUCK YEAH!” She shouted out in satisfaction. “Thank you so much YouTube, I wouldn’t have had much of a clue to do if it hadn’t been for some of the channels there, especially Primitive Technology.” As she sat back up again, she noticed that it’d probably be a good idea to make it possible for the fire to spread to some of the larger sticks and smaller logs.
With that now out of the way, she’d have light for the next while, even with the sun currently crossing the horizon. “Alright, my mana has recovered, so I suppose it’s time to resume my practice.” As she grabbed a small rock in one hand, laid a finger on top, and began focusing her mana into her finger, the tingling sensation returned. Just before the mana left her, a thought pooffed into existence in her brain, but she put it to the side for now.
Unlike the previous time, where she had envisioned a specific kind of shape for the rock to take, this time, Sylvia thought to have the rock instead follow her finger. And as if tied together by a needle and string, the rock followed her finger, though the more she pulled away from the rock, the more she noticed the rock shrink, as the material had to be obtained from somewhere. The flow of mana also indicated to her that faster movements used more mana than slower ones, even if she moved the same distance at a slower speed.
While playing around with the rock, she thought to see if she could make it a circle, like she had sometimes done with playdough before. Partially to her surprise, when she connected the line following her finger back to the base, she felt an extra bit of mana leave her, but it did connect. After cancelling the magic, she did her best to pull at it to try and break it, but it was as strong as actual rock, though it not being too thick resulted in it breaking all of sudden.
As her arms flew to the sides from the sudden loss of tension, some memories of YouTube vids and history class resurfaced. To be more specific, memories of ways to get sharp stones for primitive tools without having any real tools herself. “Tomorrow, I need to try my hand at breaking some stones to see if I can get any useful ones.” With those words said, she grabbed a carnip and began eating while checking her mana: 11/48. “I might as well use it mostly up, it’s not like I can use it for fighting anyway.”
Just before she resumed playing with a stone, Sylvia remembered that she had other affinities as well and cast a look over at her ‘pillow’, which consisted of grass with a couple big leaves on top. “I wonder, if I can connect rock, then what about plants? It’s at least worth a try.” So, she put the rock away and got over to the bed, where she placed two of the leaves in such a way that they over lapped close to their edge.
Then, she placed a finger on there and channeled her mana with two thoughts, ‘connect, grow together, connect, grow to…’. A large amount of mana existed her as the two grew together, and she immediately felt incredibly tired, so she laid down and placed her head on the pillow. The last thing she saw was that her mana had reached 0.
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When Sylvia next opened her eyes, the first thing that struck her was the freezing cold permeating her body. With her mind being as groggy as it was, the first thing she really thought was, ‘Why do I have boobs?’ when she looked at her chest, before the events of yesterday resurfaced in her mind. It was only then that she actually thought about the cold and quickly got up from the floor. “Note to self: don’t sleep on a stone floor with no isolation or continued fire, especially with no other protection from the elements.”
In an attempt to recover her body heat to more comfortable temperature, she jogged down to creek that led her to the cave. Luckily for Sylvia, the morning air was already warming up, and with the sun shining, she felt a lot better by the time she reached the water. Despite it being really cold, a good couple mouthfuls of water were really helpful in freshening up. The jog back was all it took for her to stop feeling all that cold.
As she ate her breakfast, consisting of berries and a quarter of a carnip, she began laying out her plan for the day. “Goals for today. Gather leaves and grass to use as a bedding; make a knife, possibly with the help of magic; gather more firewood; try to make or find something to store water in; maybe try to make an axe or spear depending on rocks I find and progress with other tasks; and finally, practice more magic.” Now that she had some goals, she didn’t wait around, so as soon as she had finished eating, she was on her way towards the forest.