They stared at each other after getting the notification.

“I’m too tired for this shit. We can think about it tomorrow. Let’s head back to the Balloon zone and sleep,” Jack said.

“Sounds like a good plan,” Brian said.

Near where they cut down branches for spears they had sort of made a camp.

“It’s my turn. I’ve got first watch. Go get your beauty sleep,” Brian said.

“Go kiss a tree,” Jack said and used his backpack as a pillow.

Brian alternated between: sitting on his backpack near Jack. Eating snacks throughout the night. And going for small walks to keep himself awake.

From nearby, he heard, “Rapido! Rapido!”

He pulled out his gun and started shooting in the direction of the Spanish voices.

He grabbed his bag and saw that Jack was already up.

Without talking to each other, they ran away.

…

It was the next morning. After running for a long time and finally finding a good place close to the border between the Butterfly zone and the farther unexplored inland zone, they finally took shifts sleeping.

“I slept like shit,” Jack said.

“This system should give me a rank up in Marksmanship: Pistol for how many hispanics I’ve shoth at,” Brian said.

“‘Tis true,” Jack said.

“Okay Shakespeare. So, gameplan. What we gonna do?” Brian said.

“So we gotta go to a new farther inland zone. Information is the problem. We don’t know shit. I’ve got a few ideas. Like kidnap a hispanic and force him into the zone with a phone. But then he’ll probably die and I’ll lose the phone. Or we could attach the phone to a long string. But what if he stops the recording? And we don’t have any string. So I’m thinking I wanna build some more shit. Like this spear circle. Maybe build like. I don’t know. Just something we can use. Instead of grinding, lemme just spend today building shit,” Jack said.

“But won’t the spear circle work fine? why do we need something else?” Brian said.

“It does work fine. Against the wolves. We have no idea what monster type we’re gonna get next. What if we get a bigger butterfly monster? Then the spears won’t defend shit,” Jack said.

“That is true. But we have guns now?” Brian said.

“Better safe than sorry. I’ve got big dreams,” Jack said.

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“Yeah yeah. I was just playing devil’s advocate. Let’s go with your plan. I’ll grind in circles around you. Collect slik. Maybe get a skill crystal. Call me if you need anything while building. I’m excited to see what you come up with,” Brian said.

…

“This is my first time grinding alone right?” Brian said to himself.

The butterfly monster was slowly flying towards him. He took a step forward before it lunged at him and smashed it with an overhand swing, breaking its head.

Jack and Brian learned that you could interrupt or outtime their attack patterns. This was the most effective way of killing a butterfly monster.

“Finally! Skill crystal,” Brian said.

But before he could get the crystal, he looked around and saw a butterfly nearby slowly flying towards him.

“I wanna get something like enhanced hearing. These fuckers can really sneak up on you easily when you’re grinding alone,” Brian said.

He smashed its head in. Looked around. Then went over to cut the skill crystal out of the previous butterfly.

He crushed the crystal and saw the yellow energy absorb into his hand. He felt warm energy wash over his brain.

Airplane Pilot: Rank 1

Knowledge about the very basics of piloting a big airplane rushed into his mind. He now knew what some of the big indicators he saw in movies where it showed the cockpit was about.

“Not the best. But still not the worst. Better than poetry,” Brian said to himself, and laughed.

…

Brian returned to Jack many hours later.

“Whassup biatch. What did you make?”

Jack was working on something that kind of looked like a car. But with no wheels. And no windows. And half the size of a car.

“Yo. I’m making something like a siege tower. We have to lift it to move it. But it’ll be like… We can shoot from inside it While being safe. I’ll add spears to it as well. So if it’s something like a wolf, it can’t run in. And if it’s something like a butterfly, it can’t attack from above without getting impaled. I think it should work good,” Jack said.

“Oh shit, that’s smart. Why didn’t you think of this way before? We could have been way faster grinding those wolves,” Brian said.

“Yeah yeah. But I needed that infield experience. It’s my first time making shit like this,” Jack said.

Brian looked more closely at what he was building.

“What is this? Rope?” Brian said.

“No. I used tree bark to create string. But I’m also using an interlocking wood structure in most places because it’s stronger that way. Only a few places has this,” Jack said, pointing at the string.

“Okay, how can I help so we get this on the road faster?”

“Okay, you can do this…”

They spent the rest of the day making the makeshift siege tower covered in spears. They took shifts sleeping. Then Jack spent a few more hours building it and double checking everything and doing basic tests.

“Okay. It’s ready. Let’s go into the new zone now and get that skill point and get the fuck back to Lucas!”

//////////

Jack:

Knife Fighting: Rank 1

Knife Fighting: Rank 2

Python (programming language): Rank 1

Mana generation: Rank 1

Sand to Glass Conversion Mana Blueprint: Rank 1

Healing Mana Blueprint: Rank 1

Origami: Rank 1

Enhanced Bodily Recovery: Rank 1

Speed Counting: Rank 1

Enemy Weakness Identification: Rank 1

Poetry: Rank 2

Brian:

Shield Defending: Rank 1

Marksmanship (pistol): Rank 1

Right Arm Increased Strength: Rank 1

Mana manipulation: Rank 1

Mana Sense: Rank 1

Enhanced Propriosense in Toes: Rank 1

Enhanced Bodily Recovery: Rank 1

Flame Shield Dispel: Rank 1

Cryptography: Rank 1

Enemy Pattern Recognition: Rank 1

Airplane Pilot: Rank 1

Lucas:

Insect Movement Control: Rank 1

Enlarged Penis: Rank 1

Mana sense: Rank 1

Mana Manipulation: Rank 1

Surfing: Rank 1

Arithmetic: Rank 1