Wiping the sleep out of my eyes, I get up the next morning. Strangely, after the addition of stats, things like getting up on a morning seem to be much easier for me than they were back on Earth - after all, I never was a morning person. As I have the last couple of days, I wash as best as I can and change clothes, before having breakfast - however this time I can have cooked meat, rather than cold, tinned food. Strangely, despite mana regrowth, there are still two white lines on my left arm from the snake bite, however they still appear to be healing. Also, I move .1 mana regen from the skill, so that my mana pool will slowly regen back to full. 

  After breakfast, though, I head back outside to my soon-to-be camp. Luckily, the structure is still standing, and no animals appear to have done much if any damage to it - a stark contrast to what they did the night before. Walking around, I can see that the wood has not even been scratched by animals overnight, and even the ground looks relatively untouched. Perhaps the fire I had yesterday scared the animals off, or it could just be that it was sheer coincidence that animals passed through here and messed up the wood in the first place.

  Since I used up all the remaining wood yesterday, I decide to head back out into the woods. Since I have already mostly collected the deadwood that could be used for a shelter, I decide to continue removing appropriate branches from trees with the serrated rat king's blades. Heading off in yet another new direction, I mark the trail as I go, cutting down some long, straight lengths of wood. Periodically, I head back to the camp to drop off the wood, so that I don't get too overburdened. 

   After a few trips back to camp, I realise what an idiot I've been. I have a bloody inventory! why don't I just store the wood instead of carrying it? I hold a piece of wood in my hand, and think of sending it into my inventory;

Item is over the maximum size and weight limitations of your inventory.

  'Well... damn,' I can't help but think - after all how amazing would it be to be able to just store large lengths of wood for later use, without actually having to carry them around? Not that it appears to be possible, although it could also be linked to my strength stat, as it states 'your inventory' and not 'the inventory'.

  After that dissapointment, I get back to work, and after about three hours of total work, I return to the camp for lunch. By now I have managed to cut down around 30 pieces of wood, although none of them were very thick, and the rat king's dagger does an amazing job as a saw. After all, if cutting down wood is measured on a system similar to health, then the rat king's daggers would definately be faster due to their high damage.

  After lunch, I once more head down the same path, putting off building more of the shelter, and this time decide to explore for a bit. I travel around 400 meters from the camp, marking the trees as I go, before I come across another clearing. As I enter it from the side, I can immediately see that it's much larger than the one I currently stay in, however in the centre there is a large opening. The opening is quite like a burrow; it is slightly tilted upward, although it is facing me, and is in a large mound of dirt. It's entrance is also about as tall as I am.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

   I approach the 'burrow' from the edge of the clearing, and when I reach about 5 meters away from it, a notification pops up:

Monster Lair

   A monster lair is a natural phenomenon formed when a large number of one species of monster congregate in an area. A monster lair is similar to a dungeon in it's idea, however monster lairs do not conform to the standard structure of floors and bosses, and adhere to the monster's natural home structure.

   Monster lairs, when left to grow uncontrollably, also sends out waves of monsters when it reaches full capacity. These will destroy nearby settlements or kill rivalling monsters, if left unchecked. Inside a monster lair, monsters will also reproduce their number faster than they would otherwise, meaning that without destroying a monster lair, it will always be a threat.

   A monster lair can be destroyed by killing all the monsters inside, or forcing them to flee.

Monster Lair

Recommended Party size - 5

Reccomended average level - 20

'Well, fuck' I think as I turn around and bolt back to the 'safety' of the woods. I continue to hurry back to my camp, and finally to feel safe enter the dimensional shelter. And so, I now know that in my pretty much literal back yard, there is a large lair of high-level monsters which would probably easily annihilate me. Thinking about it, it was probably a wave of those who destroyed the wood I left out the previous night.

   And so, this leaves me two choices: Flee into the complete unknown - which could potentially be much more dangerous - Or stay, and grind like crazy to have a functional shelter, and be high enough level to be able to survive a wave of enemies from it. Luckily, the dimensional shelter here should let me survive one more wave, by hiding, and give me an extra few days of safely to become stronger. And since I don't fancy running off into the middle of nowhere, with what's in my inventory, nowhere to sleep, and in a world I know nothing about, I suppose I have no choice but to stay. Hell, the lair itself could be a good place to grind once I get a bit stronger, and could let me grow in strength much faster, if at much higher risk.

   Heading back outside, I begin to advance the shelter a bit further, with the wood I harvested earlier. I continue building up the simple shelter I started last time, finalising the structure, and strengthening it in places. I also use up the last of the vines, and so I'll have to get some more of those along with the wood tomorrow.

  After I finish adding on the wood I have, the shelter's structure is nearly finished, and only needs a little work before I attempt to waterproof it and make it a bit more livable, if at all possible. By this time, the sun is beginning to set in the sky, and so I head into the dimensional shelter for a late meal of two - yes, two - pieces of cooked meat, and some water from the stream, before once more going to sleep for the night.