Waking up the next day, Tyler felt more refreshed than he expected and was quite thankful he hadn’t become a snack for a wandering animal. He looked towards his fire pit and was happily surprised to see there were still some smoldering ashes left to start a new one easily enough.
Standing up and stretching out the kinks in his back from sleeping on leaves and hard marble. He was in a hurry to get his fire going as there was still that distinct early morning chill in the air and some drops of dew on both the ground and himself. Soon enough though Tyler had a small but roaring fire and had warmed himself and gotten his brain out of that early morning fog.
“I guess this really isn’t a dream. I’m still here in this hell hole vacation. guess I have to be ready for the long haul.”
Sighing, Tyler checked the time on the watch that had saved him from that giant tiger, after checking it last night and to his best guess it was at least mostly accurate, giving him at least something to gauge the amount of time he had in his day.
Seeing that it read a little after 6, he found that he had more energy than he would have thought for only getting about 5 hours of nervous sleep on the ground. Distracted, he sat there watching the second hand tick by and listening to the quiet roar of the fire, remembering his now past life.
He had lived for 27 years and was going nowhere. He thought of his job, a dead-end cook in a dingy tiny kitchen he hated. Friends who dwindled by the day, and would only remember him when they needed something, to his distant little brother and now deceased parents. Tyler had never had much luck with romance either, the longest relationship he had was a mere few months. Tyler never had enough free time, as he needed the hours at work to make ends meet, and when he was home he was exhausted. He couldn’t blame them for not wanting to be with someone who didn’t have enough time or energy to keep the relationship going.
He hoped he could live a happier life here, if he ever made it out of this forest and made it to whatever kind of civilization was near if there even were any. He was terrified of just how much was unknown. For all he knew the entire world was like this, after all, all he had found so far was ruins. There could be no humans left, if there were any to begin with. What kind of races could be here, they must be monstrous in their own ways to contend with the creatures he had seen yesterday.
But he was determined to live and live well here, he wouldn’t be led into a living hell of monotony again, he would do whatever he wanted, and if there were humans here, he would find the love of his life and they would live free of worry exploring the world to their hearts content.
One of his few hobbies in his little free time was reading, Tyler devoured books of all genres, but had an clear favorite of fantasy. He felt that reading was the best escape from the humdrum of life. He felt his heart speed up thinking of how similar it was to many of the stories he had read and let himself dream that maybe, just maybe, he could be in a world of fantasy and adventure.
Taking a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment and seeming to come to a decision his eyes focused of the engraved message on the pocket watch and nodded to himself, “Since I’m in a whole new world and want to live a great new life, I’m done being “Tyler” he won’t be remembered, nor missed, he lived and died quietly.”
Eyeing the name inscribed, he played around with it in his mouth, feeling it.
“Adrest, huh? I like it, it’s different, it’s interesting. It’s decided! From now on I’ll go by Adrest.”
Adrest felt his heart heat up at the prospect of a new life, but reality doused him with cold water in the form of his stomach mightily rumbling. He groaned and rubbed his torso in an effort to appease it. Sighing, he grabbed his sword and decided he would wander near the river to try his luck and see if he couldn’t survive his first hunting trip.
After walking heel to toe quietly as possible to avoid startling any nearby creatures, he and his weapon walked to the river and waited. Eventually he got lucky, what looked like a cross between a deer and zebra came out only a dozen or so feet from his hiding spot in a bush with the unknown berries growing on it. He had momentarily considered trying the tempting fruit, but common sense prevailed and didn’t try the unknown fruit, waiting for meat was his safest option.
The zebra slowly but surely lowered its head to the water for a drink. It was the size of a horse, and had zebra stripes, but the colors were wrong. It was brown and white fur like a deer’s, hence Adrest was unsure of what to call it, other than a potential dinner.
Seconds ticked by and the zebra lowered its eyes fully to the water, seeming to enjoy the flavor as much as he himself had yesterday. That was the moment he decided to strike, knowing that it was now or never. He charged as fast as his legs would move, wanting to kill it in one strike.
The head came up, just in time to see the blade come down, it sank into the animal’s neck with surprising ease, far more than he had prepared for. The deer, with its neck cut opened turned and sped off, but with so much blood gushing from the severed arteries, Adrest knew that it there was no way it could get far and there would be a very obvious trail to follow. He thought it would be prudent to clean up first before he became a walking target. It was a messy job trying to decapitate the deer, and it had splattered blood all over his tattered shirt and coated his face nearly entirely. He bent down and washed his tattered shirt as best he could in the fast-flowing cold water, then used it as a towel to clean himself.
After making sure he was as clean as he could get, Adrest decided he should find his lunch as soon as possible now. He followed the trail for a few hundred feet and found the now deceased creature lying on its side. While feeling melancholy for taking an animal’s life so personally for the first time, he also knew that this forest, maybe even this world, was eat or be eaten and he wanted to survive.
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Taking a moment to thank the animal for the food, he took the sword that he had carefully cleaned in the river as best he could and then gutted and bled the deer creature that was actually quite imposing up close. He kept a very careful eye on his surroundings, working as fast as he could while also safely doing this unfamiliar task.
Minutes passed and Adrest did the best he could, and eventually deemed it as good as he could get. He grabbed its front legs to see exactly how heavy it was. Giving it a tug, he was surprised to find he could drag it with little effort. Confused, he looked closely at his now clean arms for the first time and noticed defined muscles that he was sure he didn’t have just a few days ago. He hesitated for just a moment before chalking it up just another thing that would only bother him if he thought about it, which was a quickly growing pile.
He decided to embrace his newfound strength and quickly ran with the two front legs propped over his shoulders with the bottom legs dragging behind his own, impeding him only a little as he moved. Adrest soon found himself back in front of his favorite river, and while he saw some monsters in the distance on the other side, in the entire time he spent near the river, he had never seen anything crossing it, so he deemed it probably safe to carefully get in the shallows and wash his prey.
After cleaning himself and the meat again, he quickly propped the deer over his shoulders and ran to his base camp. He made it back in record time and was happy to not find anything following him back, or investigating his home. Adrest sat on his tree branch bench and got to skinning and preparing a leg to roast over the open fire.
Adrest prepared the meat and snapped off some appropriately shaped branches to create a makeshift spit. He stabbed the limb through the center of the spear and set it over the fire and slowly rotated the spear. He kept the fire low and cooked it slowly to avoid burning the meat while still killing any potential parasites. He turned and turned, switching arms in shifts as even with his strength the monotonous work got tiring. But his hard work was rewarded with a soon glistening hunk of meat smoking attractively in the air and dripping with fat, making a steady light sizzling noise as it dropped to the flame below.
Deeming it done, he carefully pulled up the home-made spit away from the fire and quickly transferred it to another set he had made in advance to let it cool. While he waited, Adrest took the chance to move the skin and bone that he cut out while preparing the feast and threw it to the side for now, towards the direction of the black pillar, taking note to throw it in the river later.
After doing so he turned his sword to the cooked leg after passing the blade through the fire to sterilize it, cutting off small sections and using cleaned leaves to hold them while eating. It was delicious, not nearly as gamey as he expected, the was also more juices and flavor than something with no seasoning had any right to be, it made no sense, and he just chalked it up to being a particularly good type of meat and looked forward to trying the other cuts over the next day. He was determined to eat as much as possible before it spoiled.
After eating nearly the entire thigh himself he sighed contentedly and just sat in bliss, enjoying the hard earned peace. Having his fill of both food and tranquility, he grabbed the leftover bone and scraps of meat and went over to the distinct marker of a pillar to grab the other scraps, but Adrest quickly went on guard when he noticed that the remains were missing.
Cautiously he approached to investigate but he saw nothing. There were no scraps left, and disturbances in the leaves near him, and he didn’t see anything nearby. But thinking of the rabbits from yesterday and their speed, he knew that there were things that could easily run by without him being any the wiser. But minutes passed and Adrest didn’t see anything. Shoulders slacking in relief, Adrest came up with an idea and left the cooked scraps in the same exact spot before ran back to his fire and hid to observe.
Nothing happened at first, but then he saw the strangest sight. The scraps just turned to dust, instantly they just fell apart. The tiniest speck of light that he saw moving from the now vanished remains, towards the black pillar that still bore his handprint. It collided and seemed to sink in the black mystery, before the while thing faintly radiated a thrum of violet light up and down itself once.
“What the fuck?” Adrest stared slack jawed at the scene and then quickly moved over to the pillar and tried touching it to see what would happen, still in slight disbelief as the spectacle. Then something even stranger appeared, and it was a slightly transparent purple screen. At the top it clearly said lodestone management.
Below that was a variety of options, from repair, to items, to a section called building plans and many more options that were blurred and slightly darker than the others. It also said Lodestone points (lp) 5. Deciding to just roll with it and leaving it to his inner fantasy nerd, Adrest decided to click build and a few options popped up and previews were available with the sections title being “Previously Scanned” it ranged from simple hut and commoners thatch cottage to the ridiculously expensive “Demon Lord Abode” being the most expensive at 5.4 million (lp). Shaking his head at the price, he went back to the beginning and saw that a simple hut was a reasonable 15 (lp).
Coming to a decision, Adrest ran back to the deer carcass and cut off two more legs knowing that he couldn’t hope to eat the whole animal on his own anyway. Running back, he threw them at the apparent lodestones base and waited until the same thing happened and opened the menu once again, going to the hut option and with his now (20) lp he spent 15 on it. A map of what seemed to be his surroundings popped up with the pillar at the center. It seemed to show only a few hundred feet in any direction, so Adrest placed it near his fire pit, but far enough away to be safe from stray sparks. With a tap, the menu blinked back the list, and set heard a soft rumbling.
Looking back, he saw a mass of black slowly rising approximately where he clicked just a second ago. It rose higher and higher until it seemed to reach its zenith, before sinking back towards the ground, leaving the signature yellow of a straw roof behind, leading into light brown wooden walls, and one window with wooden shutters instead of glass panes and a sturdy wooden door at the entrance. The shadow blended into the ground until it was as if it had never been and all that was left was Adrest’s new humble home.
Adrest walked towards his new potential home with a spring in his step and hope in his heart. He got to the door and there was no handle, so he simply pushed inwards to reveal the interior. At first glance, it looked simple but study. The floor was packed dirt, with sturdy hard wood on all sides and a thick straw roof that would surely keep all but the most stubborn water out. Continuing, he saw that there was a spot on the walks to either side of the door to insert a slat of wood as a makeshift lock at night, with something similar at the window as well.
Nodding in satisfaction, he threw how this happened onto the pile of stuff that he didn’t want to think about in the far corner of his mind, and walked back out going back to the pillar and looked through the build menu, he soon found a straw stuffed bed to put on the floor of his new home and a make shift pillow of the same material for another 5 (lp).
Knowing what he needed to do to thrive, or at least survive, he walked back to his hiding spot near the river to try his luck again.