Nathan’s deer skin kilt rubbed against his legs as he crept around the edge of the clearing. Nathan was using the stealth Skill that he had leveled up six times in the twenty days that he had been in the second level of the Gauntlet for.
Nathan breathed in deeply. He cocked his right arm back, spike held by his thumb, pointer, and middle fingers. Nathan aimed at the doe he was hunting, his arm blurring as he released the spike in his right hand.
The accurate throwing of his spikes was still a Skill that he was working on, and he still only hit his target about a third of the time. Nathan must have gotten lucky this time, because the spike sunk into the doe’s neck.
It attempted to make a distress call, but because the spike had apparently severed its windpipe, the only thing that came out of its mouth was air.
Alert
Congratulations: You have gained a level in The Skill Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Spike Throwing(Tier 2).
Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Spike Throwing(Tier 2) Level 3: You have practiced the Holbrich Spike Style forms for years and are very proficient with them. You have incorporated spike throwing into the forms. When you throw spikes using this Skill, the spikes move ten percent faster while retaining the same accuracy. Each level in this Skill causes the speed increase to go up by two percent. The current speed increase from this Skill is fourteen percent.
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Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Spike Throwing(Tier 2) Level 4: You have practiced the Holbrich Spike Style forms for years and are very proficient with them. You have incorporated spike throwing into the forms. When you throw spikes using this Skill, the spikes move ten percent faster while retaining the same accuracy. Each level in this Skill causes the speed increase to go up by two percent. The current speed increase from this Skill is sixteen percent.
Path of the Grandmaster
Type: Master
Secondary type: N/A
Skills:
Active Skills (Maximum five):
Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Strikes (Tier 2) Level 8
Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Spike Throwing(Tier 2) Level 4
Basic Stealth (Tier 1) Level 12
Heightened Hearing(Tier 1) Level 12
Basic Land Animal Tracking(Tier 1) Level 11
Skill reserve:
Basic Improvised Crafting(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Running(Tier 1) Level 1
Basic Animal Harvesting(Tier 1) Level 1
A week and a half ago, when Nathan had been attempting to throw spikes for about three days, Nathan had received an alert that he could split his spike style and gain a tier two spike throwing Skill. Nathan had accepted, not realizing that it would cost him another Active Skill slot. It was annoying, but the Skill was worth it. The new description of his close ranged attack style was basically the same as before, even if the level had been reset to one when he had split the Skill.
Intermediate Holbrich Spike Style: Strikes (Tier 2) Level 6:You have practiced the Holbrich Spike Style striking forms for years and are very proficient with them. All attacks that use the Holbrich Fighting Style's strikes operate as if your Reflex, Endurance, and Strength were ten percent higher than they actually are. Each rank in an attribute increases the related capabilities by fifty percent. Each level in this Skill causes the power increase to go up by two percent. The current power increase from this Skill is twenty percent.
Nathan was annoyed that he had lost the reflex, strength, and endurance bonuses while doing things like dodging because the skills no longer included all movements. Thankfully, the Skill wasn’t that high level and the change wasn’t so large that he had to shift his fighting style.
Nathan dashed forwards and reached out towards the spike that was still in the doe's neck, ignoring the alert. The doe dodged attempted to bolt, but Nathan dropped down onto his left arm and spun, knocking its hooves out from under it. The doe landed on its side, the impact dislodging the spike from its neck. Blood spurted from the doe’s as it made soft gurgling noises.
Once the doe had stopped moving, Nathan retrieved his spike from the ground and pumped his fist in excitement. I finally managed to get another one of these! The first time that he had managed to hunt and kill a deer, he had left all of the meat that he had managed to harvest in a pit with some leaves over sticks on the top. Nathan had returned the following morning to find the sticks broken, the leaves scattered, and the meat gone.
Now the only question is where to store it. I could dig another hole and put a rock over the top, but then the meat would be just as at risk to worms and bug larvae. It would suck to lose some of my hard earned meat to them. While Nathan pondered the question of where to put the dead doe, he began harvesting the meat.
The last, and first time that Nathan had tried harvesting the skin and meat, he had prioritized the skin and had wasted most of the meat. This time he decided to try to get as much meat from the deer carcass as he could.
An idea came to Nathan about halfway through the messy process of . If I can find a stone outcropping, then I can stack up rocks to make an artificial cave to store the meat in. If the bottom is stone and I pack the rocks tightly, then it'll be a lot harder for any burrowing creatures to get to it.
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Once Nathan had finished his task of harvesting the deer he stood up and surveyed his work. He had managed to remove most of the meat and still had a non-torn-to-pieces section of skin that was about half of all of the skin. I’m not that bad at this anymore. Another one of these and I might get a skill!
Nathan began walking north-west, the deer skin gathered around the meat to form a pouch. The ground sloped gently upward in that direction, and Nathan figured that if found a ridge, then there might be some exposed stone to make his artificial cave from.
After walking for about two hours, spikes bouncing at his wrists on the vine bracelets he had made for them, Nathan came to an outcropping of rock that juted about fifteen feet straight up from the top of a surprisingly wide and flat hill. Nathan managed to climb up the outcropping, which was not an easy task because he only had one free hand and the cracks in the stone were few and far between.
Once he had reached the top, Nathan saw that the outcropping was in the shape of a rough cylinder, with a radius of about ten feet. The top was very uneven, except for a spot in the middle of the outcropping that was strangely smooth.
Nathan walked over and sat down right next to the smooth area, setting down the deer meat next to him. Nathan walked around the top of the outcropping, collecting rocks to make his storage area with.
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After thirty minutes of construction, Nathan had finished making the meat box.
He was in the process of placing the meat into the meat box when a thought occurred to him. Maybe I should cook this first? I’m pretty sure meat spoils slower if it's cooked. It's worth a shot either way.
Nathan shrugged and finished putting the rest of his meat into the box. He jogged over to the side of the outcropping and jumped off, absorbing the fifteen foot impact with a crouch. Now I just need to find something to use as firewood.
Nathan collected sticks into a pile for a little while before he decided that it was taking too much time. If I spend too much time doing this, something might come and eat my meat. I can’t let that happen!
Nathan walked over to a tree and jumped up into its branches. That one looks like a good one, Nathan thought, his gaze pointed at a branch that was about one and a half feet wide where it connected to the tree. Nathan scooted along the branch for about five feet before he decided that he had gotten far enough.
Nathan reversed his grip on the spike in his right so that his thumb was on the but of his spike. Nathan swung it right, creating a crater in the side of the branch. Repeating the motion several more times, Nathan managed to sever the branch. It fell to the ground with a reverberating thud, knocking many of the dead leaves into the air.
Nathan jumped down, the soft forest floor cushioning his impact. Nathan looked at the ten foot long, forking branch. That should be more than enough. Nathan grabbed the branch with both hands, swung it onto his shoulder, and dragged it back to the outcropping.
Nathan grunted as he threw the branch over the edge of the outcropping. It's incredible how much stronger I’ve gotten in four years and five months. And nearly all of that was spent in a library!
Nathan eyed the outcropping, took a few steps back, and jumped. As expected, Nathan cleared the cliff easily. What Nathan had not expected was how damn high he went.
The ground dropped away beneath him slower and slower as he reached the peak of his jump. He could easily have been twenty five feet up, possibly even thirty.
The smooth patch in the center of the outcropping rushed up beneath him, and Nathan realized that he would actually have to land. Twisting around so that his feet were beneath him was all that Nathan managed to do before he hit the stone.
As Nathan raced towards the ground he had been prepared to break one, maybe even both of his ankles. What Nath had not been prepared for was for the strangely smooth stone to shatter underneath him. Nathan had been going fast, but not that fast.
In the brief moment before the stone broke, when Nathan had had solid ground underneath him, Nathan had absorbed the impact slightly better with his left foot than with his right. Nathan had tilted slightly to the left, and, as a result, when the stone had broken Nathan had been leaning to the left.
Nathan's head hit the lip of the stone sink hole he had made, and he was unconscious before he hit the bottom of whatever ancient chasm or tunnel he had unearthed.
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An arachnid the size of a large dog skittered up a hill. The arachnid was shaped like a hairless spider with legs sharp enough to cut bone. The name that the arachnid had been given by its matriarch was Chkrclf.
Chkrclf, one of the several dozen hunters of the nest that its matriarch called ‘Those Who Dwell In Stone’, was not worried.
As one of the Matriarch’s hunters, Chkrclf could not be worried. The only thing that Chkrclf could do was follow Chkrclf’s purpose. To hunt.
But if Chkrclf could be worried, Chkrclf would be. Chkrclf had one purpose. To hunt and feed the nest. That night, Chkrclf had not hunted anything. The Matriarch would only tolerate so many failures, and this was Chkrclf’s last chance.
Chkrclf skittered down one of the nest’s three entrance tunnels. If the Matriarch was not satisfied with a hunter, then the hunter would become prey to feed the hatchlings with.
Chkrclf turned down a bend in the third entrance tunnel and there, right under a hole in the ceiling was prey. It wasn’t just any prey either. It was the hunter-prey.
The hunter-prey had caused the hunters and the nest in general, much inconvenience. The hunter-prey had appeared out of thin air in the territory of Those Who Dwell In Stone and forced many hunters to abandon their hunts.
Then one day the hunter-prey had dared to hunt the hoof-prey. The hoof prey were property of the Matriarch, and the Matriarch alone. No other nests or matriarchs were allowed to touch the Matriarch's hoof-prey. Certainly not some upstart prey that fancies itself a hunter
Then the hunter-prey had dared to do it again. The Matriarch was on the edge of sending out hunters with the purpose of eliminating the hunter-prey, but it still wasn't quite enough of an annoyance to warrant that.
But the hunter-prey had broken into the nest entrance tunnel right next to Chkrclf. Chkrclf knew that any entrance into the nest of Those Who Dwell In Stone could only be a direct attack. Chkrclf was sure that if Chkrclf brought the hunter-prey to the Matriarch, the Matriarch would be very pleased with Chkrclf.
Chkrclf skittered over to the prone form of the hunter-prey and began wrapping it in webs. Wrapped in webs, the hunter-prey was entirely covered except for its infamous wrist stingers.
Chkrclf was about to drag the hunter-prey off to the prey-body chamber, when Chkrclf noticed that the hunter prey’s chest was still moving. Chkrclf sunk its fangs into the hunter-prey, the slow-venom quickly taking effect.
Chkrclf walked down the tunnel, the cocoon that the hunter-prey was in dragged behind Chkrclf on a thread of web that was still attached to Chkrclf’s abdomen.