Chapter 5

After an hour of walking, Matt was reminded why he didn't like camping. While he was getting tired, he was no stranger to physical exertion so that part didn't bother him much. What bothered him was that there wasn't any actual trail or obvious path, so he had to wrestle with the environment anytime a too tall bush got in his way.

Thankfully with Shaping it wasn't too hard to just will the plants to move, but most of the time he couldn’t get past without needing to completely destroy the bush and Matt didn’t want to make a habit of that.

And while the weather was a bit warmer then he was used to, it wasn't terrible and he would be fine. What he didn't appreciate were how many bugs he needed to shoo away now that he was walking. When he was stationary and working on his gear, he didn't need to pay much attention but now it was all he could focus on.

Still, he would not be deterred by the inconveniences of nature. He was on an adventure, a Quest even! This was the first stretch in his journey here in Helinos and he will rise to the challenge and be victorious!

With a renewed vigor in his gate, he marched through the brush and continued his journey. It wasn’t long after that he heard something faintly in the distance, something barely carried by the wind. Paying attention, Matt realized it was rushing water somewhere ahead of him. That was a good sign, rivers were important to settlements so depending on how far this goes, he may have found a better path.

Pushing forward through the denser plant life, he moved past the spot where the trees started to thin out and the grass gave way to gravel and sand. Just ahead of him was a large river, easily twenty feet across and deep enough that Matt was having hard seeing into the center. The water moved forward, noisily crashing against the shore and rocks that were standing up out of its currents.

Realizing how he was fairly thirsty, Matt rushed forward to the water's edge to get a drink before stopping himself. He wasn’t sure if it was safe to drink, and this would be a pretty lame way to go if he got sick. Looking over the edge into the water, Matt observed that it was running smoothly down further the river, and was incredibly clear, no signs of muck or otherwise debris. Both good signs.

Bending closer, he couldn’t smell anything noticeable coming from the water, and reaching his hands to cup a small amount to bring it up to his face also didn't reveal any odor when smelling directly from the water. Hesitantly, Matt lifted his hands to his lips and took a sip, not tasting anything unusual he decided to drink the rest of it. Quenching his thirst a bit, Matt stood up and moved to a tree.

Even if there was nothing obviously wrong, he was still going to err on the side of caution. Reaching up to a thicker branch, he bonded with it and quickly Shaped the wood into a hollow canister. Smiling at his new canteen, he returned to the river and filled it up, Shaping the opening directly so that it was sealed instead of making some kind of lid. Satisfied, he added a strap directly into the wood with some rope and attached it to his belt.

He would see if the water he did drink upsets his stomach at all after a while, and if he felt fine then the river was safe to drink from. While it was a risk, not having any water to drink would be even more so. Hopefully it was fine, suffering even a bit of stomach unrest while he was in a fantasy world and he didn’t know what the toilet situation would be like. Even the thought made him shiver in fear as he nervously looked down at his canteen.

Following the river path downstream and hopefully still north, Matt watched as the currents splashed against the shore and rocks. Occasionally, Matt could see strange fish swim near the edge where he could see them. They looked mostly like regular river fish, but they were bright green and had long fins. Interesting. At least Matt knew he would be able to find food if he needed it.

Making a fishing rod would be pretty easy with his Shaping. He didn’t have to worry about finding a good branch already in the shape of a rod, and he could make it more Durable in case the fish were stronger than he thought. He wouldn’t be able to make super thin lines, but he could make as much rope as he needed and make it pretty strong. Thinking about it, he reached to his belt and shaped off a few inches from his coiled rope.

Spreading the fibers thinner, he wrapped them as tight as he could while keeping them still flexible as rope. Or maybe calling it string would be better. After making a bit less than two feet of the thinner wood string, he Shaped the Durability as much as he could and gave it a test. Pulling as hard as he could, it took a lot of effort to snap the line and when he did, the surprise knocked off balance for a moment.

Shaping the break back together, he put the string in his pocket. Not having to worry that much about broken gear was going to be incredible. At least not worrying about his wooden gear, for the moment. Wear and tear being one of the biggest issues he might face adventuring, and that was solved as long as he had the material to fix it. Which he supposes might be the catch, but carrying a bit of extra material was a small price to pay. Even a smaller price if he could Shape the Weight of things.

Matt could probably make some kind of backpack right now, but he didn’t want to over encumber himself overtly until he found his way out of the forest. He might think about it if he doesn’t find his way before the day ends. Making rope wasn’t hard, so Shaping the rope into cloth also shouldn’t be too hard. It won’t be very soft, but plant fiber fabric is pretty sturdy. Ooh, maybe he could get Hardness or something as a property? That could be useful.

Just thinking about all the things that he would be able to do made Matt's heart quicken slightly in excitement. Having an idea on what he wanted his next unlocks to be would probably be a good idea. Metal would be nice, but he didn’t have any and it would just be taking up points until he had enough capitol. Wood was very easy to come by, especially if he could return to the forest. So focusing on building his Properties would probably be the most useful.

They would be used on all his materials, not just Wood, so they would go further as far as points were concerned. So what would be the best Property? Probably Weight. His armor wasn’t too heavy and he should get used to it, but things added up quickly and having more material to work with would always be good. And if he got good at quickly changing his Properties, he could even use it in battle.

Right now, it took Matt a moment to Shape the property of something. It was much easier to just do its shape, but when he got better being able to increase the weight of his weapon mid impact would be huge. When he got out of here, he would definitely need to do some actual practice and get better at-

What was that? Stopping in his tracks, Matt hurriedly searched his surroundings. He was still walking by the river with it to his left and the tree line to his right, he had been feeling the wood pass in and out of his bond senses as he walked by the trees. He was mostly tuning it out as getting feedback whenever he walked by trees and bushes was a lot when he was in the forest.

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However, while he was used to the wood moving in and out of his senses he felt something wooden quickly dart though his perception area. He would have missed it if it wasn’t moving so fast and a sudden shock to what he was tuning out. But he didn’t miss it, and now he was on high alert, paying attention to every piece of wood in his surroundings.

He felt the disturbance from his right somewhere in the plant life. The white trees and bushes were the same as they always were and Matt couldn’t see anything wrong with them. Even trying to find something wrong with his senses didn’t turn up any new information, he didn’t have a high enough level of detail to see what was wrong.

Unhappy with the results of his investigation, Matt turned away and slowly continued walking north along the river. However, he kept his senses trained on the treeline as he kept moving, waiting for the disturbance again as his mind swirlled with possabilities. Was there something invisible stalking him? That wouldn’t make sense with what he felt, unless it was carrying something made of wood. No, that wouldn’t help either, he would have felt something different. Was it carrying branches then?

There. Walking slowly along the path, he felt what was moving around. From one of the thicker bushes, he felt as a chunk of its wood slowly slither out of the branches and slink through the foliage. Reaching out with his Connection, he felt that he couldn’t bond to whatever the wood was. It wasn't even a resistance preventing him from shaping that he could overcome, it was entirely blocked off.

Whenever he tried to bond, the Connection just slipped off the wood and failed. What did that mean? Racking his brain for an explanation, Matt remembered the system had listed animate material as impossible to shape. Was that what was happening? This was some kind of creature made of wood? Must be one of those monsters the system was talking about.

Feeling the creature move again, he watched as it crept back into another bush and advanced, all without disturbing the leaves and making a sound. He watched as it moved through a bush and the twigs themselves shifted out of the way, giving it easier access. Was this thing also a Shaper, or could it just control plants? Matt didn’t know but it was seriously creeping him out, so he slowly reached a hand to his back and retrieved his bat. Just holding the textured wood handle made him feel better, as he waited.

The creature stopped moving when he reached for his bat, and Matt almost lost track of it. Thankfully he could locate it again by just trying to bond with the wood where he last remembered it. Continuing forward, the creature must have decided it was safe as it began to stalk forward. Matt didn’t have the best resolution on what the creature actually looked like from this distance, but from what he could sense it was weird.

There was definitely a central chunk of wood that must have been its body, but Matt watched in nervous confusion as the mass shifted form often, flattening and thinning when needed to fit through the environment. It was large enough to make him worry, around two feet long and a foot at its widest, with weird limbs stretching out. They had less wood then the main mass did, but he could still see four thick animal limbs made from intertwined branches moving the creature through the bush, unraveling and changing when needed.

What he assumed was its head was equally as unnerving. Resembling a lizard or snake's head in shape, it was attached to a long wooden neck that moved through the brush in a similar manner to its tendril limbs, the head could almost be confused for another appendage if Matt didn’t notice how the head was always pointed straight at his back. No matter how it moved or hid within the bushes, it was locked onto him.

Shivering again from the unease he felt from the creature, Matt's grip hardened around the handle of his bat and he took a deep breath. This creature wasn’t going to leave him alone, and the way it was stalking him didn’t inspire much confidence that it was just curious. This thing was a predator, and it had him in its sights. He would not let it win easily.

Waiting until it was hiding in another bush, Matt stopped moving. He felt the creature freeze to match his actions, and he took one last deep breath. Matt bonded with the branches surrounding the creature, and Spending more Connection then he would have if he had taken his time, made the wood contract quickly, squeezing as hard as he could.

The creature immediately knew its cover was blown and it thrashed about, straining against its new prison, letting out a frightening hiss that made Matt's hair stand on end, a weird mix of serpentine and wind echoing through hollow wood. As he turned to properly face his opponent and Shape the Durability as fast and high as he could, Matt got a good look at his foe.

It was much the same as how he sensed it, a body structure that was vaguely similar to pumas and other big cats, lithe and agile, but entirely made out of pale bark resembling the trees and bushes in the area. Its legs which looked normal startled unfurling and lashing out as several barky vine tendrils, trying to rip its way out of Matt's hold. Not only could he feel the tension physically as the creature struggled, he could also feel another presence trying to take over his bond.

The reptilian head, also made from bark, continued to hiss at Matt in between bouts of thrashing and trying to rip through the cage with its teeth. Teeth that Matt got an excellent view of whenever it hissed at him. Facing him were several rows of sharp fangs that looked as if wood thorns and knives had kids and didn’t raise them right. It was terrifying and almost made Mat reconsider and just try running away, but he didn’t know if he could outrun this thing and this was the best chance he had.

Charging forward, Matt held his bat high in position as he closed the distance. The creature hissed more at him, weird sap spilling from its mouth as Matt expertly slid forward to be next to the push and started to swing straight for the beasts head, it stopping its hissing as it watched in a moment of surprise as its face collided with the sporting tool now weapon.

A deafening crack echoed through the forest from the impact, the sound of wood striking hard against each other. If the creature's head had been a baseball, it would have been sent flying from Matt's textbook perfect swing. However, it was not a baseball. The creature made a strangled gasp as its head flew back into the bush, bark flying off the creature's face and in all directions. It was still alive, but heavily disoriented as it slowly tried to lift its head up.

Usually, it is not recommended to strike hard surfaces with your bat as it can cause cracks and other damage, but Matt could feel innately every detail about his bat. When wooden objects stroke each other, they will often crack each other unless one is much sturdier. And Matt knew for a fact that the wood he had Shaped was sturdier than this creature's body. Not wasting any time, he shifted the bat back into position and swung hard.

More and more bark continued to shed from the impacts as Matt repeatedly struck the creature's head and neck. He wasn’t giving it any time to recover, and after the fifth swing a loud snap echoed from the bush as something vital inside the creature's anatomy broke and it fell limp. Weird green sap like blood was leaking slowly from the deepest of the impacts and his bat which he shook off. Matt stepped back, breath coming out in hard bursts as he calmed down from the rush. He had done it, this thing thought it could ambush him and he showed it who's boss.

New Achievement!

You have killed your first monster! Not only did you detect an ambush predator before it could attack you, you even trapped and defeated it without taking any damage! That deserves a bonus!

Reward: 1 point, small level progress

Matt grinned wide as he read the notification window. That was a huge gain, and would help him survive even more. He wasn’t sure when he was going to get a level up, but points being part of Achievements when he did things that were impressive would help a lot in unlocking more power.

Just as he was about to investigate the corpse, he heard rustling from behind him. Spinning around with his bat held ready, he watched in shock as two more of those tree creatures step out of the bush, hissing at him as they switched between looking at him, and looking at the body of the creature besides him. Dang it…