Chapter 6: Crafting.

When Jace next woke, it was to a rumbling stomach, a terrible crick in his neck, and a pleasantly humid environment like waking up at the beach at sunrise on a tropical island.

‘Bathroom.’ Sitting up quickly, he sent a quick thanks to Smaug for standing guard and rushed to find somewhere to go. ‘This is a fucking cavern, anywhere I go is going to smell terrible for weeks.’

He turned to the direction of the cold side door and imagined what would happen if he exposed his cheeks. The mental image of his buns getting stabbed by shards of ice on the wind or freezing over vetoed that idea.

He turned to the direction of the hot side door and recalled the burning layer of skin from his foot, only to imagine it on his ass, before immediately declining that idea.

His stomach churned and with desperation mounting, he did what any man would do and prayed for forgiveness for his following actions. “Smaug, look away!”

Jace jumped into the blue water.

Minutes later, he sat on the water’s edge with thankful eyes. ‘If the water didn’t work there, this would have been incredibly awkward.’ The neon blue water was beautiful no matter how you looked at it. Sparkling like precious jewels to create a natural scene of beauty.

If he had dirtied such water permanently with his filth…. ‘Well, at least I know the almighty magical washing machine covers all bases.’

Shaking himself off, and pointedly ignoring Smaug’s facial expression, Jace got started with his day.

Stretching out his body to get the crick out of his neck, he summoned his grimoire and took a look at his status.

[Status]

[Name: Jace

Race: Human

Title: -

Alignment: Neutral 0

Class: Summoner – lvl 0 {EXP 31/100}

HP: 50/50

MP: 50/50

SP: 50/50

Unspent Talent Point(s): 0

Unspent Class Token(s): 3-Point Class Skill Token x2, Rank: E - Unlock Summon Token x2.

Base MP-Regen set to 5% per minute.

Base HP-Regen set to 1% per minute.

Base SP-Regen set to 1% per minute.

]

‘Hmmm…so this wasn’t a dream.’ He scratched the back of his head in wry amusement. His first day in the new world was filled with so many new experiences and twists that now that he was well rested, it all felt like some incredible fever dream just imagining it. ‘Well, it is what it is.’

He was still in a cavern. He still had his status. The glowing blue water was still there. Smaug was still there, oddly playing with the four rubies they collected. And most importantly of all, he was still nude besides his briefs. ‘I need some goddamn clothing.’

Jace wasn’t vain. He didn’t care that much for fashion or how he looked. But damn it, he enjoyed being hygienic and wearing some flipping pants. ‘Pants maketh man.’

Eyeing up his status one more, Jace dropped his distracting thoughts and focused. ‘All jokes aside, I really do need some clothes. My briefs will only last me so long. I also need tools, weapons, some furniture if I don’t want to destroy my back sleeping on the uneven floor, and most importantly some traps.’

His EXP bar was sitting a nice third of the way through and that got him thinking. ‘I only had to kill two of those rodents to get that much, even with the 50% EXP debuff for my class. But if it weren’t for Smaug and the lucky factor of all those squirrels were asleep when I approached, I would have died then and there. Thankfully, I learned enough about the creatures to know how to deal with them.’

The squirrels were berserkers, mindlessly chasing him with little thought to strategy or throwing things besides their own bodies. Jace was able to restrain one with a single hand, and stun another with a swing of his fist. ‘Although, I doubt I would have hit them normally if it weren’t for Smaug.’

Jace turned his eyes on his partner who was making poses in his reflection of the jewels while hissing something to himself. ‘Those rodents were insanely fast in short bursts. I couldn’t even see them move. Yet I was fast enough to outrun them. That means they have high dexterity but low strength, defense, and mental intelligence. I might not be able to fight them up front with those deadly teeth of theirs, but they are a hunters ideal prey with traps.’

It had been long enough that he was having trouble remembering everything, but even off the top of his head, Jace could think of three or four types of snares that used prey’s own struggle against them. Catching them in a snare around the neck that only tightened the more they struggled was a perfect fit for the prey he was hunting.

‘But first, I need to get crafting.’ Clapping his hands to get Smaug’s attention, Jace waved toward the path. “We both know your handsome Smaug, leave the jewels, we got work to do.”

Smaug hissed forlornly at the jewels before patting them with his tail and slithering over to climb up to his perch under the amused eyes of Jace. Yet even as Jace started walking, he still caught sight of Smaug looking back longingly.

Seeing his partner so down, Jace decided to motivate him. “You know, if my plan works out, you will have a lot more jewels to play with.”

Smaug’s little eyes widened as he looked up at Jace like the messiah.

“Yes, if we wipe out those rodents then dozens, likely hundreds of shiny rubies will be ours.”

The little guardian’s face scrunched up in a serious expression and nodded. He was ready for war.

“You do realize we’re splitting the loot, right?”

Smaug didn’t acknowledge the comment.

00000

The next day passed in a blur of activity as Jace went around gathering materials.

From the cold side, he carefully stepped outside to collect only the fallen branches he had moved the day before, not going farther than fifty meters from the entrance. ‘Thankfully I moved everything before dealing with the rodents.’

On his trip the day before, he had been thinking to make his life easier by tossing or moving large branches and logs closer to the doorway for later pickup, and now it was paying off.

While being as quiet and careful as he could, his snowshoed feet swiftly crunched through the snow, carting one log after another to the doorway. ‘This wood weighs normally, but it’s hella durable.’ The sharp ice shards on the platform shattered one after another as the wood was dragged back and forth without a single scratch on them from the literal natural blades.

Examining the wood, Jace hummed and marked down his findings. ‘Mostly Pine and Hickory, but I can’t name the last one. Oh well, I’ll just use that one for firewood.’

Jace’s bushcraft skills came in a wide range of basic abilities and hundreds of little knowledge tidbits that were mostly useless in modern civilization. ‘Dad was thorough in passing down the trade.’ His old man put Jace and his brothers through their paces growing up, showing them how to survive off the land with simple skills that once learned were difficult to forget. From hunting, trapping, basic carpentry, and a number of things that could be useful out and about in the wild.

For example, Jace knew that pine trees were rich in Resin. ‘Heating tree resin with charcoal powder can give me glue. I’ll come back to get some when I carve some bowls.’

And thanks to knowing that Hickory Nuts were in the area, he was able to spot a few more bundles to pick from without a sleeping Arctic Squirrel in sight.

The little berserkers were around, and just like knowing of the nuts helped him spot them, knowing of the squirrels helped him keep a wary eye out and avoid area’s with them resting in the branches.

He left the wood outside the doorway, not seeing a point in bringing it inside just yet. ‘I’m not sure how the high humidity will affect the wood, I’ll bring a few logs in and see how it goes. Maybe them being grown in a mana rich environment will make them more resistant to mold.’

Shrugging, Jace moved a fifth of the wood to the Dungeon Monolith platform before heading over to the hot side.

From the hot side, he wandered around the platform like an astronaut on the surface of mars, searching the other piles of stones in the craters laying around the twenty meter space. ‘Hm…more obsidian, lava rock, I think that’s cinder, and is this….pumice?’

Not entirely sure on his finds, he grabbed whatever looked useful and dragged them inside to cool them down. Leaving him with a large pile of lava rock, and smaller piles of the other three materials.

Scratching his head, Jace tried to recall what he knew of the stones. ‘Obsidian I’ve already been over, it’s perfect for weapons. Lava rock was pretty common stuff, I think they used it mainly for decorations in gardens, but it’s a very dense stone. Cinder was mainly used for soil to promote plant growth, not sure what I can use that for just yet. And pumice…..well, I’ll have smooth skin at least.’ Pumice was a natural exfoliator for human skin and left behind a pleasant aroma after said fact.

Jace tried to explain what it did to Smaug, but the little snake was disinterested with anything not shiny.

“It might not be shiny bud, but it will make your scales shiny.”

Smaug’s bored expression snapped to Jace’s smiling one with a certain level of intensity that made Jace smile like a sleazy salesman.

“Yeeessss, it will make your scales shine more than any other snake. They will shine so much; you will be able to see your reflection in them.

It went to show how prideful of his majesty Smaug was when he climbed aboard and all but dragged Jace toward the water for them to try it out. An attempt that ultimately failed when they discovered Smaug was ticklish and wouldn’t stay still for the life of him.

But the small reprieve was welcome after a full day of Jace lugging around heavy logs and stones, carrying them half a mile from each direction to the Dungeon Monolith platform. Unwinding from the stress and taking a second to breathe, which was a great idea for Jace’s mental health.

While he mostly put things behind him the day before, it was still good for him to work through his feelings about leaving all he once knew behind.

The two ended the day moving over to the waterfall, where the pool of water at its base steamed at a much higher temperature than the pool of magic washing water at the dungeon monolith platform. It was a natural hot spring, seeping into their bodies and washing away the phantom aches and pains.

“Ah~, this is the life. Right bud?”

Smaug hissed in blissful agreement.

Man and snake let out a combined sigh of pleasure as they kicked back and floated in peace long into the night.

The following day, rested and recovered in mind and body, Jace proudly stared at his collection of materials cluttering up the space and got to work. ‘I need tools first.’

The first thing he did was whittle himself a bone handle for his obsidian knife so he could properly hold it. Following that, he worked on an ugly, yet useful hatchet.

Using the two, he stripped the bark from the logs as it peeled away like paper from the wood underneath.

One by one rolls were set aside and stacked high until he gathered a sizable amount. ‘Perfect. Now I can make threads out of it.’

Sitting by the ponds edge, he soaked his feet in the cool soothing water and worked for hours, taking one roll of bark after another and tearing it into strips. The material gave way easily, requiring little force and giving him long cords of thread to be used.

The process was relaxing, keeping him focused and not letting any foreign emotions sink in. So relaxing in fact that he couldn’t help but hum a tune as he went along.

“Ohhhh~, ninety nine blocks of bark to tear, ninety nine blocks to tear, take one down, tear it around, ninety eight strands of bark to tear.”

Smaug chilled out on his neck, bobbing his head to the tune and silently supporting Jace with a waving tail like a moral support cheerleader. Or, that was just the result of him wagging his tail like a happy cat as he stared at his reflection in the rubies.

Jace shook his head in wry amusement. “You’re going to poke your eye out if you stick so close bud. Give the stones some space to breathe.”

Smaug hissed in disagreement, tightening his coiled hold around the stones like Gollum enraptured by the One Ring. Thankfully, unlike Gollum, the little guy was innately loyal and protective of Jace and wasn’t under any risk of corruption to a foreign object.

At least, he was pretty sure they weren’t a risk. ‘I wouldn’t put it past those level 2 rodents to be secretly connected to the big bad final boss of this entire world. If the last thing I have to face on Atrox is a giant squirrel, I’m gonna be pissed.’

Shaking off the amusing thoughts, he turned back to his work and spent a full half of the day first stripping the bark until he had a pile of high of thin strands to work with.

Using the strands, he carefully braiding them into a very firm cordage, occasionally mixing in strands made from torn dried tendons form the Arctic Squirrels. ‘Bark cordage isn’t usually the greatest or long lasting of materials, but with how reinforced this wood is, something tells me this stuff is going to be much more durable than I feared.’

Testing it out, Jace hung some cord around a stone and put his body weight behind it yet felt no strain from the material. ‘Oh yeah, this is going to be perfect.’

Once he was satisfied with his roll of cord, Jace moved on making hammers using lava rock for the hammer and wood for the shaft, tied firmly together with cordage.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Then a rough stone chisel, and a larger flat axe for splitting wood. He just had to put the flat sharpened rock of an axe onto the wood he wanted to cut and tap the back end with a club to force it down with little energy wasted.

With proper cordage and the right knots, dozens of possible doors opened to him. And while most of his work wouldn’t win any rewards in the looks or efficiency department, they still did the job he wanted them to do, and that’s all that mattered at the end of the day.

The second day passed with those accomplishments, and Jace ended it with a firepit dug into the sand next to the Dungeon Platform, curtesy of Smaug’s mighty sand digging skills. Summoner and Guardian relaxed by the fires edge, enjoying the sounds of crackling wood and roasted some Hickory nuts over the flames.

‘Smells like autumn.’ Hickory nuts gave off a sweet and spicy scent when roasted, similar to baked pecan pie mixed with cinnamon. ‘Reminds me of ma’s famous pecan pie in the fall.’ Jace fondly reminisced on the time, feeling like it was so long ago, yet also just days before.

With Smaug sensing the mood, the two huddled up and drifted to sleep in peace, surrounded by warmth, warm memories, and the lingering scent of pecan.

The next day, on the third day of his crafting run, Jace woke with another annoying crick in his neck. ‘This is getting ridiculous; I need something more solid than sand and softer than stone to sleep on.’

After washing up and having a breakfast of roasted nuts and water from the source back in his starting cave, Jace got right to work on his bedding issue.

Putting logs together, he dug out grooves in the logs and fit them together like puzzle pieces. With two larger supporting logs at the head and foot, and long thinner logs length wise.

Using his hatchet, he dug into the thinner logs to flatten them out as much as he could, resulting in a somewhat bumpy yet infinitely better bed than the uneven, rocky floor. Smaug seemed amused by it as well, hopping up and down on the bed with a slight rebound from the bend of the wood.

Jace shot his partner a harsh look when the wood creaked. “You break it, you replace it.”

Smaug looked at his tail, then to Jace’s hands, and back to his tail in deep thought before sagging. There was no more jumping after that, but Jace cheered him up with some head pats.

With his bed frame done, Jace moved on to dealing with the Arctic Squirrel skins. ‘Those fuckers had a decent amount of fur.’ Each squirrel was just under two feet in height, but their long puffy tails were another two feet worth of fur to work with.

‘Thank god the washing machine water worked on the fur.’ Despite the Arctic Squirrels having bright white and blue fur, the damn things were anything but clean. Jace washed out the skins in the water and saw a cloud of dirt, oil, shit, and such bleed out of it. Thankfully, the water left behind a perfectly clean hide for him to work with. And the area outside the hot side doorway was a fantastic spot to hang things to dry out on a stand made of wood without burning them. ‘Saved me having to scrape all the gunk off and wait days for it to dry out.’

It took him the rest of the day to deal with them, but that night he was able to lay down on a new bed frame with velvety soft furs to rest his upper body on. ‘It’s not enough to make clothes just yet, but it works great for sleeping. When I get enough, I’m making a hammock out of this stuff.’ Smaug curled his body in a coil, tucked into the crack of Jace’s neck as he kept his head up, scanning the area while Jace slept.

The fourth day of crafting, and the fifth day since Jace woke up, was dedicated to carving. Using his assortment of stone hammers and chisels, Jace got to work shaving away at lava rocks, obsidian, and hickory wood for a variety of items.

From the lava rock, he carved out a large pot, as well as a mortar and pestle to grind down spices and herbs in the future.

From the obsidian, he chipped away and formed an assortment of sharp edged blades, making dozens of square shaped blades, spear heads, and a few small knives for throwing purposes. Wrapping the knife handles in bone and cordage to keep a firm grip.

image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/792095442053496832/1219666835042078831/image.png?ex=660c2241&is=65f9ad41&hm=607fd2f6431b54f46091dc195f30aeb363bf6f3c5cbabe68b475eca69c27c4a3&]

From the hickory wood, he carved out bowls, cups, spoons, and he spent a good hour shaping out a trio of spear like shafts, and a further two hours whittling down a large piece of wood into a two and a half foot paddle like club.

The spear shafts were only a few feet long, and had short grooves cut into it for grip.

But the paddle has a deeper groove cut along edges, making a smooth line going from the handle up to the rounded tip, and around to the other side of the handle.

‘That should do it for the base. Now I need the glue.’

Taking his new stone pot, he went back outside to the cold side to gather resin from the pine trees. They were rich in the sap, and he only had to break a few branches to collect a decent amount.

All he needed then was some charcoal he dug up from his firepit the night before and ground the burnt material in his mortar to create a powder.

‘We made glue like this a few times, dad was really into making primitive weapons for fun. Just mix resin and charcoal powder at a 1 to 3 ratio in a pot and let it mix over heat without boiling.’

Jace took the pot to the hot side and simply placed it on the ground. ‘No need to make a fire when I have an easy frying pan.’

It took a bit for the mix to heat up, and even then Jace screwed up by letting it boil the first time. ‘I need to find a higher stone.’

The ground level of the platform was the hottest, but each stone layer stacked atop it lowered the heat until he found one that was just right.

It was a slow and tedious process, but Jace persevered over it, screwing up a few times as the mixture wasn’t right, or he heated it too much and lost the sticky quality he was looking for.

Trial and error was the name of the game, and he managed to get it right on his fifth try. ‘This is actually a lot of fun, and the setting makes this even more fantasy like.’

It was like being in a real RPG. With the backdrop of the lava filled landscape, the floating magnetic islands, and the ocean wave like earth far below. He stood at the apex of the mountain, in a suit of armored sand, and made glue in a pot.

It was surreal. And Jace loved every second of it.

The more he got into things, the more he felt like he was actually living for the first time in his life. After years of being bogged down by studies, stress, and endless work, the fond memories of him, his father, and his two brothers messing around in nature and their home workshop came back to him and mixed with the fantasy he always wished was reality.

‘Man, when’s the last time I even thought about my teen years?’

The more he worked, the more he remembered and the more he began to realize how much he had forgotten.

The memories of his father teaching him things hands on, showing him how to hunt, skin an animal, forage, work with tools, and so many more.

The memories of his brothers challenging him to stupid contests, forcing them to grow to outdo each other in their old man’s workshop.

The laughter, friendly ribbing, loud music, and all around busy atmosphere his old home had when they all got into the groove of bushcraft and crafting before his mother reigned them in like unruly pups with warm meals.

For the first time in years, all those memories came rushing back, and Jace was truly hit with what he left behind, not only now, but also when he left for college in a big city, never looking back or slowing down on his path.

‘How long has it been since I had so much fun working with my hands?’ The thought astounded him, and as he worked, Smaug was the only one to notice that the wet marks on his cheeks had nothing to do with his sweat from the high heat.

Yet like a faithful companion, Jace’s loyal guardian only tightened his hold around his neck in a silent hug and stood guard over his charge. Something Jace was greatly thankful for, as he didn’t want pity. He just wanted to work through his feelings, letting them out and accepting it all.

One day wasn’t enough to accept what he left behind. But as he kept going, he slowly came to be at peace with himself. And keeping himself busy was the best way to do it.

And when the glue was finished, he cheered with joy only somewhat related to the task of actually making glue. “Yes!” Jace cheered with his hands in the air. “I have glue! Fear me world! Hahaha!” He laughed like a stereotypical vampire villain and didn’t care even a bit about it. Letting his emotions pour through him and ring out into the new world.

That is, until a loud squawk of a predatorial bird responded to his laugh and Jace sucked in his voice like a choked mouse before skedaddling back inside promptly.

Taking his new prize, he went back to finish off his projects.

First he added some glue to his obsidian knives at the handle. ‘I knew carving an indent into the bone to hold the knife wouldn’t be enough. Thankfully, they held up fine for simple crafting.’

That job only took a few minutes, then there were the spear shafts. He carefully cut a groove into one end, filled it with glue, and slid an obsidian shaped spearhead into the slot and wrapped it in cord for good measure. The cord helped put pressure on the blade so the glue could harden, as well as give it extra support to stay stable and secure.

Each spear was only three feet in length, but seeing as he never used a spear before, Jace preferred something shorter so he could be more accurate with a stab. ‘No point in a six foot shaft if I can’t hit a target right in front of me.’

As for the wooden paddle/club/sword thing. He cut indents along the groove he carved in earlier. Only this time, he filled the indents with glue and carefully pressed in obsidian shards. One by one, they were inserted and soon surrounded the edge of the paddle, creating one decent looking Aztec style short sword.

Waving it around in the air, Jace whistled. “It’s not going to win any art fair rewards, and I’m sure some history buff would scoff at it, but who cares what it looks like. This thing is deadly.”

Coming up on some spare logs, Jace wound up and smashed the wood with the sharp end of his paddle. Even through the reinforced wood, the obsidian shards didn’t just penetrate but shred. ‘Look out rodents, I’m coming for you fuckers.’

The fourth day of crafting ended on a high note with Jace and Smaug doing some terrible impressions of Egyptian dancing around a roaring fire.

But the following day, there was only one thing left for him to focus on.

Traps.

Looking over his supplies, Jace hummed to himself and wrote out some notes in his grimoire. ‘I never focused that much on trapping game, that was more my brothers thing, but I think I still remember a few of them I can use here.’

[Traps:

Den Snare: Stake two sticks into the ground right in front of the entrance to a rabbit den. Tie some cordage to a high bendy branch. Tie the other end of the cordage to the two sticks and lock it in place with a twisted third and fourth stick. Add a simple pressure plate out of sticks.

Result: Whatever steps on the pressure plate will have the cordage tighten around their neck and pull them out of their den.

Twitch-Up Snare: Stake a thick stick into the ground. Cut a notch into the stick and carve a second stick to fit into that notch. Tie one end of the cordage to a high branch, and the other to the second stick. Add a loop of cordage around the stick.

Result: When prey sticks it’s head through, it will knock the second stick out of the notch, causing the cordage to yank the prey off the ground and hang them or break their neck.

Deadfall Trap: Take a heavy rock or log and prop it up using sticks. Create a level stick that when stepped on by an animal causes the main stick to get knocked out, resulting in the heavy object falling to crush the prey.

Squirrel Pole: Find a long branch and tie loops of cordage every few feet or so up the branch. Place the branch at an angle against a large tree active with squirrels.

Result: The squirrel will attempt to move up and down the branch, cross through the loop, get its head stuck, and then as gravity takes hold, they will fall off the branch where the loop will remain to hang them.

Bird Trap: Take a stick and drill a small hole through the center of it. Feed cordage through it, with one end having a loop. Place the stick somewhere in the branches of a tree at the junction of a Y shaped branch. Tie the end without the loop to a heavy object like a rock or log. Take a second stick, called a pressure stick, and block the hole in the first stick, stopping the cordage from feeding through despite the weight on the other end.

Result: When prey lands on the pressure stick, they dislodge it from blocking the hole, causing the loop to rapidly tighten around the preys neck or leg and trap them under the weight of heavy object, usually breaking whatever limb caught from the force.

]

Those were the five viable traps he thought could fit his scenario. ‘I also recall a fishing trap, but that’s not very useful at the moment.’ Looking over his list, Jace quickly crossed out two of his options. ‘The Den Snare is out, I have yet to see an actual den for these rodents. They sleep in the trees and it seems like they are immune to the cold, so I’m not even sure if they have dens. I can keep the pressure plate concept for the future when I face larger game.’

He added it to his notes before turning to the second one he crossed out. ‘The Deadfall Trap is out as well. These rodents are quick as all hell in short bursts, and while I’m confident a rapidly tightening cord could catch them, I can’t say the same about a falling object. This one’s out.’

Looking at the last three, Jace felt each of them were viable. ‘I guess I’ll just have to try them all and see what works best.’

With a game plan set, he got to work preparing everything he would need to set them up quickly.

Carving sticks into the right shapes, tying the cord in the right places, and making sure to do some stress tests to make sure they could handle these berserker rodents.

Putting all his weight on a loop without seeing it snap, Jace nodded his head. ‘I doubt this cord will hold up to even a single bite of their teeth, but as long as I can grab them by the neck, they’re fair game. Well….as long as they don’t stop to help each other anyway.’

Jace didn’t think they would. He had found numerous bones of other squirrels while finding logs, and it seemed the creatures fought amongst themselves just as much as external threats. ‘Angry little fuckers.’

On the fifth day of crafting, Jace put his all into making traps, doing every kind of stress test he could to be sure they could hold up to the strain and not fail him when his life was on the line. ‘If none of the traps work, I’ll be forced to try and lure one out at a time and fight directly, and I’d rather not take that chance.’

He only survived the first two encounters thanks to Smaug’s surprise strikes slowing the squirrels down enough for Jace to stun them. If they had to face two at once, Jace didn’t imagine a happy ending. ‘I just need to reach level 5 and unlock my class skills.’

With those thoughts motivating him, he did what he could. Scrapping together a dozen of each of the three types of traps he would use and had made sure to go out and forage an equal amount of Hickory nuts to use as bait. ‘Maybe I should roast the nuts for the traps? The fragrance is heavenly and very pungent, so it would be sure to grab their attention.’

Jace wasn’t sure. The smell was a good idea, but what if they didn’t want to eat something they weren’t familiar with? ‘I’ll do both. Half the traps will have roasted nuts, and half with regular ones.’

And so, by the end of the fifth day of crafting, and the sixth day since his new life began, Jace felt he was as prepared as he was going to be.

Sitting by a fire pit, Jace stared into the flames and mentally went over his gear.

[

Twitch-Up Snare set x12.

Squirrel Pole x12.

Bird Trap set x12.

Obsidian throwing knives x12.

Obsidian skinning knife x1.

Obsidian Aztec short sword x1.

]

He didn’t bother with thinking of using his tools for weapons. The hammers, hatchets, and chisels were too unwieldly or brittle to be used for actual fighting. He would use it if he had nothing else, but it was more efficient to use a spear or sword.

‘I could make a bow as well.’

Tapping his finger in the sand, he idly watched as Smaug built himself a sand castle of sorts, proclaiming himself king of the central tower with a ruby placed on top like a Christmas tree star.

‘Hickory wood is perfect for a bow. I could carve one out, maybe double it up to make a Penobscot primitive bow. I’ve seen my brother make one before, and it held a decent fifty to sixty pounds of force on it. Only problem is that it would take me a few days to put together.’

Jace wasn’t really hot on delaying his hunting that much longer. There was only so long you could sustain yourself on water and nuts before getting cravings. ‘I could survive off the nuts for weeks longer if I had to, but I don’t want to. That mouthwatering, juicy, aromatic meat is calling me.’ Jace had to wipe the corner of his mouth to stop himself from drooling. ‘Man wasn’t made to live off water and nuts, man was made to eat meat!’

Hyping himself up, Jace was ready to go. And it wasn’t only him. Smaug had been bugging him for days to go kill something.

Even with a language barrier in place, the guardian summon was quite expressive in his desires with the help of their soul bond to communicate. The little snake was prideful, greedy, gluttonous, extremely protective of Jace’s safety, and above all, adorable beyond measure. Jace spent at least 5% of his waking hours pampering the little guy and felt no shame in admitting it. So with his sole partner and his own stomach urging him on, Jace decided five days of prep work was enough to get the ball rolling. ‘No more rookie mistakes. I’m a hunter and a summoner. If I have to get in close with a foe or prey for direct combat, I already failed.’

Waving over his partner, Jace raised the little guy to eye level and smiled. “You ready to go hunt some more of those squirrels, bud?”

Smaug’s eyes gleamed excitedly in the fire light as he nodded.

Jace chuckled and rubbed his head. “Good. Then tomorrow we will strike. I think we’ve been passive enough as it is. Let’s show these fuckers who the prey is around here.”

Smaug hissed happily and pointed his tail off to the side. Jace followed the appendage and twitched with exasperation at what he wanted. “Yes, Smaug, we will also collect more rubies from their corpses. Seriously, sometimes I think you care more about shiny rocks than me.”

Smaug tilted his head in silent contemplation and got a head boop for his troubles. “No. No abandoning me to play with your riches.”

The little guardian narrowed his eyes and booped Jace back with his tail as if Jace was a child not understanding their priorities in life.

“I’m after meat and EXP, loot comes after.”

Smaug hissed in denial. Loot came first to him, the rest second.

The two went back and forth for the rest of the night, describing in great detail, or as much as an expressive soul bound snake could, to make their points heard.

It was their way of relaxing and taking their minds off things, and Jace was thankful beyond belief to have his partner there for it. Once the initial adrenaline of his new life faded away, he was left alone in a massive cavern in a fantasy world, surrounded by challenges and enemies on all sides, faced with an almost impossible growth curve, and with nothing but a pair of briefs covering his cheeks to his name.

If he didn’t have Smaug, Jace was sure he would have lost some parts of himself even if he survived.

So he didn’t take his partner for granted. He appreciated and adored his little buddy, and Smaug felt it through the bond, sharing back the same feelings of care for his human.

And so at the end of his sixth day on Atrox, man and snake cuddled up and slept peacefully, drowning out the world for the moment before they would strike and make their mark.

A mark that would become the first step onto a path of greatness, affecting the future of not only Atrox, but many more worlds to come. But that was a story for another time.

For now, Jace and Smaug had to survive their first challenge.

Their crucible to reach level 5.

Chapter end.