Tom's new priority was to make some kind of spear. He was not eager to face another wooden bear with about 15 cm long stick. Tom still vividly remembered how it felt as the bear's claws tore his flesh apart. And holding the stick wasn't a pleasant experiment either, as it was now sharp enough to cut his hand if he wasn't careful.
First, Tom tested just pushing the stick into a thicker meter-long stick's end like it was a spearhead. It almost looked like a crude weapon if you were generous with the term. It was a much thicker piece of wood with a pointy stick at its end.
As Tom tested it by stabbing at nearby trees, he soon noticed how the stick either stuck to the tree or sunk deeper into the bigger stick. It was something he didn't want to see, as he wasn't confident enough in his skills to end a fight with one attack. So he started thinking about how he could make the spear better.
Tom started looking around for a thicker fallen branch. However, he didn't see any suitable pieces around, so he decided to get one straight from the source. Tom found a tree with a relatively straight branch, and its thickness was just in the sweet spot he was looking for where he could still hold it, but not so slim that it would break after one attack. So he could use it without being afraid of it breaking.
Tom left the gem in a hole he dug into the ground after he had made sure there was no plant life nearby. He did not wish to play with his luck with the plant life. After that, he got straight to work. Tom placed the stick into the brach and started hammering at it with a rock. He was on high alert the whole time, If the tree made even the slightest movement, he would instantly run away. It did not take long for the stick to go through the branch. Then Tom did it again from different points. While working on the branch he kept shooting glances at the gem, he was determined to not lose it.
Not long after, he was able to snap the branch off. To Tom's delight, the tree didn't try any funny business. Then he did the same to the other end of the branch. Next, Tom took his new spear shaft and started carving out a hole into its side near the end of it. After that, he pushed the stick into the same end of the shaft which connected nicely with the hole he carved to its side, and went a bit deeper. Then Tom took out a rock that was just the perfect size for the hole he had carved, and after a bit of poking and prodding, he managed to get it into the hole at the end of the carved hole. Now, if Tom had managed to do it right the stick wouldn't sink any deeper into his spearshaft, as the rock would stop its sinkage. The only thing he now needed was some kind of glue to make everything stay in place, and while he was cutting off the branch, he had found it. Resin!
Tom started making minor cuts into tree trunks and having the resin drip into the hole carved into the side of the soon-to-be spear. After what felt like forever, there was a decent amount of resin in the hole, so Tom stuffed a piece of wood into the hole to function as a cork. He did the same to the hole at the top of it, where the stick would go. Soon after, he coated the stick in resin and stuffed it in.
"Let's hope this works," Tom muttered. He held a 1,5 meter-long, way too-thick spear with a comically small blade in its end. He had probably spent over an hour working on this spear that was way too clumsy for anything else than most basic attacks. This spear was made only for dumb enemies who would come charging straight at you, and you could just hide behind it, letting them skewer themselves on it. And as it happens, the only enemy that Tom had run into was the wooden bear, which fit the bill perfectly.
Tom picked up his stuff, decided on a direction, and started walking. Now that he wasn't in a hurry, he could look around more closely. The soil was full of all kinds of plants and shrubbery. He also saw some berries, but he wasn't hungry enough to find out if they were safe to eat. Then again, he didn't even know if he needed to eat in the Secverse.
The forest seemed almost like it had been copy-pasted. There were only some slight differences in the surroundings that broke the monotony and proved that the forest wasn't just endlessly repeating itself.
Tom saw a couple of other wooden animals while walking through the forest. One rabbit and one bird, but as they weren't aggressive and rushing straight at him, he had no hope of catching them, so he just kept on walking and ignored them.
After what felt like forever, he finally saw some other topography than just a flat field full of pine forest. There was a hill in front of him. He had never been as excited as he was now just for seeing a barely seven-meter-tall hill.
Tom started walking towards the hill with new vigor. As he got closer, he started noticing further details about the hill that made his excitement grow. The hills sides were utterly barren, and there was a perfect circle of eight trees on the hilltop.
He slowly circled the hill and looked for anything unusual, but the only things he could see were the eight trees. He decided that it was time for him to go and check out the only bigger anomaly he had so far seen in the Secverse.
Griping his spear tighter, he moved from tree to tree, until there were no trees left. in front of him was an empty treeless circle surrounding the hill.
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He felt like he was advancing towards castless walls, and was just stepping into the killing fields surrounding them. Tom felt chills crawl up his spine.
"If I back out after the very first challenge I face. How am I ever supposed to make it in this new world?" Tom pumped himself up while staring at the hill. He didn't know how, or why this basic-looking hill scared him so much.
Every step he took felt like he was walking toward his death, and the feeling only intensified as he started climbing the hill itself, but he pushed forwards. He forced himself to remember that this was only a game, and if he died, it wouldn't be for real. However, the fear he felt was very real. The only thing that kept him going was the fact that either he climbed this hill, or he would have to continue his tedious march through what felt like a never-ending pine forest. And if he died, who knew, maybe he would respawn somewhere else. This thought worked so much better as encouragement than any other he had come up with before it, and he started seeing this almost as a win-win situation.
Tom finally stepped into the tree circle, and as if the fear of death never existed, it disappeared. He did not know how to feel about what he saw. There was just one small juniper tree in the middle of the tree circle.
Deciding that there must be something special about it. Or some devious being designed this forest just to drive people mad. So he continued walking forwards.
When he came within two meters of the juniper tree. It came alive. Its root exploded out from the ground and closed off all of his escape routes, as they weaved themself between the trees.
"Well, fuuu...."
As this was not the first time that a tree did something like this Tom was quite sure that it was after the same thing as the last one. He took the green gem out of his pocket and watched as the juniper tree's branches shot toward it like it was the best thing in the world.
Tom didn't want to lose his spoils of war. And he couldn't find any way to escape. So his mind went straight to the thought. "What would happen if I ate it?" Which had been too scared to do back then. But now that he was backed into a corner, and was likely going to die, what had he to lose?
"I might as well go out on my own terms." Tom thought as he threw the gem into his mouth.
He would have thought that he would have to force it down his throat, but as soon as he tried to swallow it went down like he was drinking water.
The juniper tree stopped like it hadn't ever even moved. Its target had suddenly disappeared, and it clearly didn't know what to do. Tom was glad that the tree wasn't any smarter and try to cut him open in order to have what it wanted.
At this point, Tom couldn't focus on anything anymore. It felt like his whole stomach was filling up at an astonishing rate. Like something was growing inside of him. His entire existence had turned into pure pain. It didn't take long until he was sure that he wasn't just imagining things, something was truly growing inside of him. He felt it as all his blood vessels started expanding as if something was using them as channels to spread to his whole body.
Tom was horrified and in so much pain. He felt how his whole body was getting covered by this invasive force, and he could do absolutely nothing while it happened. Tom had no idea how long it had taken, it had felt like forever and a blink of an eye at the same time. At this point, the only area still free of the invasive force was his head. He felt the moment as it started advancing toward his head. It started slowly crawling through his neck. Each millimeter it covered, somehow more agonizing than the last. It felt as if it was somehow doing more than just consuming his body. And the feeling only intensified the closer it got to his head.
Then he felt it. Some force appeared inside of his head. It felt like he had finally reclaimed something that was always supposed to be there. Suddenly he could somewhat resist the invasive force's advances. He pushed everything he could spare from the pain to the part of him, that was resisting it. He wasn't even sure what he was doing, but he felt that its advancement speed had somewhat slowed down, and the pain had slightly eased.
As Tom finally could feel something else than pure pain, he thought that he might as well test as many things as he could before he died. He was positive that things couldn't get any worse and just maybe some of them could save him. As he was sure that he was going to otherwise die because he felt the steady advancement of the energy toward his brain had only slowed, not stopped.
Tom Forced the body that his head was connected to move. As he wasn't sure if it still was his body because it felt like it was made out of wood. Every action felt like it happened with delay, and all the joints were ridiculously stiff. The body took some of its berries and fed them to Tom's head. He continued eating them until he lost the final bit of control he had left. And then, he couldn't feel his body anymore it was like he had become paralyzed.
Tom gave up on his defense against the invading energy and focused his energy on detecting what was happening to his body, hoping that he could learn even something. Because he was already sure that he was going to die. So at least, he wanted to get some data out of this horrific experience. Otherwise, all this would have been for nothing. And if he failed, at least he would die sooner, the pain of having his body consumed from the inside out was just too much to bear.
Tom entered a strange trance-like state where he saw as much as he felt every millimeter of his body. He saw how green energy lines were going through his body. How they kept on advancing toward his head. There was also new black energy that was spreading from his stomach and destroying the green energy where ever it went, leavening behind brown energy that Tom could only describe as rotten. There was also some strange blue energy concentrated around his head which was stopping the green energy from spreading to his head.
He could see how the green and black energy battled for dominance in his body. Wich games him a bit of respite, as the green energy's advances stopped, as it focused on fighting against the black energy. But he knew the result of the battle wouldn't matter to him. He felt an unbelievable tiredness come over him, and how his consciousness was starting to fade away.
He could see how the blue energy was diminishing at the same rate as he felt the tiredness come over him. Then he realized it, it was his will, his mental energy. His last thought before he lost consciousness was, "I can affect the energy with my mind!" Then the darkness took him.