It was with a dry mouth and stiff neck that Victoria woke up to a new notification.

[Health potions (uncommon) have been added to Sponsorship (Keeper of Secrets)]

She grinned. So, they were still trying to win her over. That was good, that meant there was merit to her decision.

The reminder of her health caused her to check again on her wound. Miraculously, it was starting to feel better. It was scabbed over, still red, and didn’t smell at all. She was honestly surprised it didn’t seem infected. The chances of that must have been low, with her location and the size of her injury. It was similarly strange she hadn’t suffered from travelers’ disease.

There was no way this planet didn’t evolve viruses or infectious bacteria at all… right? She was no biologist, but she was pretty sure those were a pretty big step towards multi-cellular life. Or maybe the gods had done something to her, to keep her healthy and entertaining. No one wanted to watch someone rot away on their deathbed.

In any case, she had no hope of getting a real answer, so might as well not look the gift horse in the mouth. Looking over her two offers, the one from this “Fluctuating Chaos” character still seemed superior, and would remain that way so long as she didn’t get an infection. Survival skills were just more crucial, right now.

That was enough laying around. Despite feeling sore, her sleep had restored her resolve. She wanted tomorrow to be a little easier on her, so she set out for a second attempt at building a shelter. She could do this.

Three hours later, she was sorry to say, she very much could not do this. All she had to show was a collection of barely secured sticks leaning up on a big rock. She could barely crawl in there, water could leak through unimpeded, and a slight bump or stray breeze would demolish it. Some rope would solve her problems instantly, but alas, how one went about making rope was beyond her. She vaguely understood you had to get thin plant fibers and twist them together, but she also had no clue how to get said plant fibers, or keep it together when she was done.

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Without rope, the best she could do was try and drive the sticks into the ground. Apparently, that was harder than it seemed.

She was in the middle of sulking about that when she heard a haunting animal scream, like if a deer had a child with a crocodile. A deep bellowing rasp of anguish and pain.

Taking up her machete, she began walking towards the source. Just past a couple trees, a strange reptilian horse staggered forward and slumped to the ground. Buried in its scaly hide was a spear, lodged deep and gushing blood.

Troubling. That spear meant there was some kind of sapient creature nearby. Another victim of the deranged deities, possibly, or a native to wherever this was.

With a shuddering breath, the animal in front of her drew its last and lay still and unmoving. To be safe, and also to drain it of any remaining blood, she cut a slice into its neck as she dragged it back to the creek.

Whatever had hunted it was possibly still tracking it, so as soon as she was able, she covered herself in mud and plants to wait and see.

An hour and a half later, if she had to guess, there was nothing. Perhaps it had run too far for its pursuer, or the hunter had run into some other complication. Either that or it just took longer to track dying things down than she knew and she was about to run into it face to face as she stole its kill, but she could just ignore that possibility for now.

She got to work starting a fire, but no such luck. It was too damp here for her rudimentary setup to work. Every day the shelter construction and fire starting skills looked so, so appealing now. Not to mention, the insane showman said something about her having a chaos affinity, whatever that meant, and chaos was in this person’s (did they count as people?) name.

She had no coin to flip, and she knew the pattern of eenie meenie miney moe. That knowledge had really ruined her.

That left her with rational decision, the dastardly thing. This meat would likely go bad if she waited to cook it. She also might get some kind of disease or be attacked by an animal, sleeping practically in the open as she was. By then it might be too late. However, if her wound developed infection and she took this offer, she wouldn’t be able to accept the other and get those lifesaving health potions. Ultimately, that’s what made the decision for her.

While the safe option might seem to be taking the offer now, she couldn’t take the risk. No animal would be as dangerous as infection and disease. You can’t run from or stab a virus.

Another day of waiting, which meant another morning with a stiff neck. She was getting pretty damn sick of this. She would remember all this hardship, when she got the chance-

She cut that thought off before it could fully form. She must be getting tired; her self-control was slipping.

She stomped the ground down where she had slept last night and laid down to rest. With any luck, her wound would be fine tomorrow as well.