Sera pet Iva as she hung over their small rock cave.
He was now big enough to sit on her lap like an oversized golden retriever.
In the distance the last of the pink glowing jellyfish bobbed slowly into the murky waters.
She spun the builder tool constantly moving her fingers and feet otherwise the biting came back, as she repeated the almost habitual actions Sera looked on at her creation.
It was a hard choice to make, but she knew it was the right one, especially for what was to come.
PID Interface
Available Builder Recipes:
Current recipes shown are based on the User’s situation, some recipes may be hidden and others are missing from the database.
Rooms:
* Small room, non-upgradable due to size limitations, able to be moved easily.
* Medium room, upgradable, able to be moved.
* Large room, upgradable however resources required will be tripled, unable to be moved.
Interior:
* PID Mount, directly control your current base with the PID.
* Map Visualiser, visualise the map instead of it being described.
* Foodocculator, creates food from flora or fauna collected.
* Bed, three modes, hammock mode, wind-up mode or normal mode.
* Mod station, able to upgrade tools and armour.
Exterior:
* Water turbine, create energy through passive wave movements.
* Solar panel, create energy through UV light.
* Solar turbine, create energy through UV & passive waves.
* Small turret, capable of fending off small scaled intruders.
“Rooms, interior and exterior… that’s a lot of buildings and just options in general,” Sera spoke to the empty waters, which Iva understood as Sera talking to her.
As Iva swam slowly around Sera, waiting to explore again, Sera was stuck in a state of what if’s.
What if I need to move quickly, or what if I need the extra room for the interior and exterior furniture and technology?
“To break the princess out of The Temple I need to fix the PID, to fix it I need modules, but if I go out unprepared again-” Sera stayed transfixed on the blue screen and slowly her options began disappearing.
A large room wouldn’t work if I need to move, a medium room would be nice and the upgrade tag is interesting, but I need to be able to move fast and get help.
Briefly scanning over the Mod station and Foodocculator Sera couldn’t help but think she was forgetting something.
Feeling something push against her left-hand, Sera saw Iva peeking out under her.
“Oh right,” Making her choice Sera brought out the scan tool.
Holding down the trigger while aiming it at her fishy friend, the blue crystal at the top of the tool began glowing and grid lines shown over Iva, who had been staring at Sera.
Iva got to experience what it felt like having a torch shining directly at it, but even as the little seal began swimming away from the piercing light the grid lines had met against each other and disappeared.
Scanner Results
Rare Creature discovered!
Automatically named Alpha Sealwing.
* Perks:
* Capable of navigating and hunting within seagrass or in environments with little to no light.
* Long fins on the side of the creature are similar to winged creatures seen on land, however the scales are much smaller and compact than normal fish.
* Intelligence matches sapient beings, however the extent to which the Sealwing is able to perceive the environment requires months of monitoring.
* Alpha Sealwing special perk, capable of growing to triple the size of a mature Sealwing, more intelligent than most of its kind due to its need to lead.
* Weaknesses:
* Sealwings are not creatures used to travelling alone, if a Sealwing is left along it will continue moving in search for a new pack until death.
* Sealwings are not strong as they are fast, their muscle strength is lower than the average.
“Wait you’re the alpha Iva?”
Looking over to the now ticked off seal circling the entrance of the cave, Sera could see sunlight begin to shine through, she couldn’t spend the whole day inside.
But what should she make first?
PID Interface
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[Would you like for the PID to advise you for your next action?]
Just as Sera was pondering, the Personal Instruction Device came to her rescue, she did need to fix the PID to help Loretta, and helping a princess definitely came with its perks.
Clicking the yes button a new screen came up, and as it did Sera almost swam into Iva trying to hurry out.
PID Interface
Survival Guidelines:
* Craft knife.
* Craft light armour.
* Craft small room. (Or a medium room if the Sealwing needs to be accommodated.)
* Complete before Winter approaches (One week)
* Reason: Winter is predicted to bring more predatory animals, the User’s safety will be at risk.
She had one week, and worse if the water in winter was freezing then Iva would need to stay within the medium room.
But what about food or the modules-
Sweeping out of the cave she could hear a small squeak behind her as Sera dove into the first morning.
The sun was shining directly into the cave and the whole landscape was covered in cyan rays, in the distance Sera could see the seagrass along with the small cliffs surrounding it.
Over to the right the water was murky because of the distance, but she could barely see green lights flickering along with long pieces of metal stuck into the rock and sand, the shipwreck.
Then finally she looked around her, caves sprouted out from the stones and sand, coral of red and green grew between crevices, and she could now perceive the small fish roaming around her.
“... Okay, this is doable.”
PID Interface
Knife Materials Required:
* Quartz 120 mg
* Seagrass 50 mg
* Lead / Black Iron 100 mg
Light Armour Materials Required:
* Seagrass 650 mg
* Lead / Black Iron 50 mg
* Green Scales 400 mg
“Quartz is first Iva, let’s go.”
Pushing off the seafloor, Iva followed Sera as the two looked for the materials for protection, the best defence is a good offence after all.
Keeping her eyes peeled for green scaled fish and breakable rocks, Sera brought out her scanner and held down the trigger as he passed by rocks outside the entrance of the small holes.
It’s too small for me or even Iva to fit, but I can see something inside, more materials maybe, I wonder if there’s an entrance nearby?
Scanning rock after rock the PID menu kept growing in size but she didn’t want to have to check after every few seconds, if she instead scanned all the rocks then just swam back afterwards with a few meters off the seafloor…
Sera could already imagine her new knife and armour, though her current scaly outfit did look fashionable it did little in the way of protection against fangs or claws.
Spotting a large boulder, Sera swam closer until she realised the black boulder was instead a cave entrance!
“Iva, make sure to remember where this is ok?”
Pointing to the hole and watching the small Iva try to process what Sera was saying kept a smile growing on her face as her red eyes continued to scan normal looking rock after normal looking rock.
Until finally she had made a full circuit.
“Ready for the haul?”
Putting her scanner away, she focused on the PID menu.
Scanner Results
Sandstone found!
Lead found!
Sandstone found!
Dirt found!
Sandstone found!
Lead found!
Sandstone found!
Coral clump found!
Quartz clump found!
Red scales found!
Coral clump found!
Dirt found!
Dirt found!
Lead found!
Dirt found!
Lead found!
Sandstone found!
Sand clump found!
Dirt found!
Dirt found!
Coral clump found!
Dirt found!
Sera’s bright face with wide cheeks and excited shoulders all dropped when she saw the lack of materials.
“Four pieces of lead, some quartz and red scales, not green ones,” Even worse was that they were all spread apart from each other.
As Sera began swimming towards the thin and far between materials she couldn’t help compare it to her earlier hauls.
Why was this haul so crappy? All the others that I had found were on cliffs and only had four or five distinct rocks at best, but almost all of them had some useful material.
Breaking apart another rock with the PID out of spite… and usefulness, Sera began focusing on collecting all the materials, which were often buried under another layer of sand.
“Wait… Sand, all the useful materials were found on rock before rather than sand, maybe it’s the location and the lack of solid rock.”
Thinking harder on this idea, Sera ended up collecting the 200 mg of lead and 50 mg of Quartz, the red scales were going to be thrown away but…
PID Interface
New Recipe Discovered!
Green scales:
* Red scales.
* Seagrass / Algae.
“Huh… Red scales work too huh,” Sera looked over at Iva who was on the lookout for green fish.
Or at least that's what she hoped he was on the lookout for.
Sera looked back at the cave entrance she had made a circuit around, if she was right with her earlier assessment about better materials being found nearby solid rock…
“Well we still need some quartz, and some extra lead could help with other tools, or maybe even the base for winter.”
Making up her mind, she called Iva over before pointing towards the cave and trying to get the idea across.
Swimming towards the cave Sera felt like she was moving a bit faster than she normally did, she made a mental note to check her skill sets before bringing out her scanner turned torch.
The cave wasn’t small by any means.
What she saw through the gaps while searching for materials felt like a scrap of what was really here.
Then Sera spotted something on the ground.
“Wait, that’s not a rock… is that-”
Scanning the broken pieces of metal, grid lines shown until a discovery was made that shocked her.
PID Interface
New recipe discovered!
Compass:
* Ideal for navigating unknown waters or locating yourself on non-PID maps.
New recipe discovered!
Makeshift flare:
* Ideal for distracting predators or working as a source of light.
Red eyes stared at the broken equipment, frozen in disbelief “Someone else has been here.”