Day 28 (continued):
One of the first things I had wondered since I began hunting yesterday was why there were no imps or rank equivalents in this area. Our Veshta Nereda did report to me that there were plenty of Veshta Neredas in the area. I found it odd, so this time, I went around and did more searching than it was necessary for hunting.
I came to two conclusions.
1. The area is filled with some nasty creatures. Some were bigger than trees, while the nastier ones were about the size of the imps with the speed of a ninja.
2. The area may be mountainous, but the valleys in between were swampy. In these swamps lived multiple communities of forg-man called Bullywug. They had villages at many conjunction points between the valleys.
So, traversing between the mountains made it a hazardous thing to do for any creatures the Bullywogs were hostile to.
I pondered. Hunting would have to be limited to the small range that my camp is currently in, but once many of the imps evolve, the lack of food and hunting ground will force us to face off the Bullywugs. Bullywugs would have been for a long time, if their number was suggesting anything, which meant that they could be well organized ... or not.
Without much more information, I could not act hastily. I had a lot of preparing to do.
I jumped down from the treetops to the ground and landed right next to Shriou. "Alright, let's get moving. Since we can't go down the mountains without trouble, let's move up."
And so we moved up.
I came upon the same clearing where I had met the deer, and I saw that they were still there, not too far away. Perhaps they don't learn? Or what was it that brought them back here?
So I watched them as the imps did as well. They were curious as to why I didn't start setting up traps immediately. Shirou asked me that. I told him what I was thinking.
"If this mountain has a good source of food for deer, why are they back here? It was literally yesterday that some of their herd died here."
Shirou seemed to get the mystery.
So we all watched.
The first thing I noted was what they ate. Berries and grass, but more berries than grass. It seemed that these deer's diets were different from the ones I was familiar with.
The second thing I observed was their "rotation" of sorts. They would eat in one place, then move on, and within hours, come back to the very same spot they started feeding on.
I looked around, searching for the very berry that they were eating, and I found it. It was less than three strides from the base of the tree I had been observing the deer herds from. So I went to the berry, plucked it, and used [Observe].
Second-Grove Triberry
Tiny Fruit
? [Req. Observe(LvL 10)]
Description:
Consumed mostly by villages and animals far out in the wilderness, Triberry is known for its unique characteristic: as long as there is food for its roots -light, water, and air- it can regrow its berry within four hours. Not only that, it can go from a seed to a full-grown bush within a week. However, it is considered no longer a pest by gardeners.
Consumption Bonus:
Sour Aftertaste: triggers [Alertness] that lasts for three seconds.
Oh, I get it. That's why they were able to react to me so fast when I first attacked them yesterday. This berry not only sated their hunger, it also eliminated the need for the deer to move in large areas, and thus reduced the amount of space predators could find them. I must have been lucky or something. On top of that, by eating this berry, they would become more alert and could react better to threats or any kind of surprises!
It was pretty cool... and something I should cultivate. After all, it only required three things: light, water, and air. While I was sure that it had other requirements, I was no herbologist. But still, I could plant a lot of these where our camp was situated, and within a week, we would have a stable food source.
I plucked a bunch of them and tossed them into my -previously orc's- worn jacket's pockets. Then I left the jacket on the ground and turned to the deer.
Okay, I got the information I wanted... Time to hunt.
With [Running] activated, I was soon zooming towards the deers with my knives drawn, and my [Charge] activated too.
I grinned as I counted the number of dead deer surrounding me.
It seemed that I had attacked them just as they were en route from one feeding area to the next, and they didn't have the [Alertness] buff available to them. Taken by surprise, or they were too dependent on it, I had cornered them into a very dense portion of the forest where there had been a small cliff or sort of thing, and slaughtered everything.
"...3...4...5!" I yelled happily.
The imps didn't look happy as I did. Shirou looked particularly sick. "What?"
"It was ..." Shirou began, his red skin somewhat green. "Kind of sick."
I raised an eyebrow. "Did you expect it to be better?"
"Traps, maybe? That's what you usually do."
I cackled. "I don't need to do that anymore, though!" I exclaimed gleefully. "Now that I'm strong and fast enough, I can directly grab and kill my prey. So much easier and takes so much less time... But I may need to wash off the blood."
So, I found a stream nearby and washed the blood off myself and my clothes. I quickly went back and slung four of the deer -they were small now, after I evolved- over my shoulder. "You can carry one by yourself, Shirou. That should give you some workout. It is only a small deer, too. Should be no problem, right?"
Shirou looked at me in abject horror.
I just smirked back and went back to the camp.
"W-Wait!"
I promptly ignored Shirou.
Once we -Shirou took a full hour to drag the deer- were back in our camp, I cut up the deer, and handed the meat out on the condition that they would follow my orders in exchange for food and protection. There were one or two dissenters, but they all went along with what I said as long as I wasn't asking them to hurt themselves.
I agreed to that, and we all had a small feast.
But that got me wondering...
Hadn't I basically declared myself chief over this "tribe" of imps?
...
I was a fucking tribal chief. How hilarious was that?
Well, I would have to make them stronger than they are now if they were to survive out here.
Again, that leads the point back to needing a shelter, and I was thinking more along the lines of a wood-walled fortress than not. If I really had to, I could find us a cave, but a cave was not defensible as a walled fort, and it was easy to get cornered.
No, fort would be better, even if it would have to take some time for us to build it.
Once I ate, the first thing I got to work on was to recreate one of the more essential skills I had back in my first life.
I must recreate the [Crafting].
Easier said than done. Now that I think about it, I should have gotten the [Crafting] skill already, seeing as I had done a lot of tinkering and rigging of traps as an imp.
Or was this one of those things he couldn't achieve because he was an imp at the time?
Back to the present, I had been working on making hatchets for hours already. I had already made three, and I was just waiting for that damn [Crafting] skill to pop up.
I finished the tightening on the sharpened stone -provided by Shirou- and the thick branch I had cut off. There! Another hatchet complete.
So I waited ... and waited ... and waited... and waited...and w-.
When the fuck is it going to come out?!
"What are we supposed to do with these, Ruto?" Shirou asked me.
I glared at him accidentally, my annoyance at not receiving the [Crafting] yet carrying over.
"To cut down the woods. We need to make a fort if we're going to survive out here. This place isn't like our forest used to be," I remarked curtly. I noticed him flinch.
"How bad is it?"
Gotta remember that they don't have [Observe].
"At the base of this mountain alone, there are three bullywug villages, and they like to ambush people for their trinkets or to enjoy belittling them. From what I saw, they numbered in the hundreds altogether, but we only numbered twenty or so at best," I replied. "If they decide to kill us, which I don't doubt those bullywugs will try -it's in their name- we won't stand a chance without a wall to protect ourselves."
"Why don't we find a cave then? Like our last ... colony..."
"Seems you get why I'm not choosing a cave."
There was a silence after that as Shirou and I worked on ... Okay, what the hell? Were there some kind of other requirements for [Crafting]?
Ping!
Skill Request
[Basic Crafting]
Category: Advanced
Requirement:
*Production of a minimum of LvL 10 item, equipment, or physical capital.
I blinked.
Well, that was convenient.
"[Observe]," I spoke and stared at the axes.
Stone Axe [LvL 3]
Not exactly high tech, but it allows for efficient logging.
*+(your STR/10 x target Log's Thickness(meter)) minutes for each logging
*+30 physical damage when wielded as a weapon.
"Huh."
I've been wasting my time, it seems.
... I'd better use [Observe] on every single shit I see.
"I think we've made enough for now," I told Shirou as I stood up. "Let's see if we can do something about those deer skins."
Deer Leather Jacket (Poor) [LvL 5]
Good enough to stop stone weaponry, but steel should cut through this like butter.
*+10 physical defense against damage.
"Nope."
Deer Leather Forearm Protectors (Poor) [LvL 4]
Good enough to withstand one good strike at your forearms.
*+1 STR on wearer
*+4 physical defense against damage.
"Nope, again."
Deer Leather Pants (Poor) [LvL 6]
Decent protection. Still not good enough against high-tech weaponry.
*+14 physical defense against damage.
"Nope. Hand me more."
"There are no more."
I snapped around, and indeed, there was no more leather for me to use.
"Damn," I gritted my teeth slightly in frustration.
Clink...
I looked down and saw my two looted weapons.
They were rusty as hell, though.
... But I did get an idea. I could heat these guys and pound the rust out of them. But to do that, I might need a good hammer.
"Shirou."
Shirou stopped sharpening his current project and looked up at me. "Yes?"
"Is it possible for you to make me a hammer head?"
He blinked and then grinned. "I can try, but I definitely won't be able to finish it today."
"Alright, just get back to me soon."
Day 29:
When Shirou walked up to me, I was excited. Did he finish it?
Shirou was indeed holding a lump of roughly hammerhead-shaped rock in his two frail hands. "I-It's this."
I took it from him -my hand was bigger than his face by a large margin, actually- and I hefted it up. It was a bit on the large side, but it would do fine. I quickly walked over to the workspace, where the hatchets still lay. I took one of the thicker branches I had cut off yesterday, and using plant fiber, I began to tie the two things together.
It took me half an hour to get it just right so that the hammer would hold, but it was worth it.
Stone Hammer (Poor) [LvL 7]
Too small to use it as a normal weapon, but too large for anything fine and small.
*Can be used on metals.
There were no other stats to it, but that was fine.
I turned to a small pit of fire I had made next to my workspace. I pulled out my daggers and stuck the blades in the fire.
Shirou looked horrified.
I shrugged, ignoring him. I waited for the blades to turn glowing red before I pulled them out by the handle, yelping as I burned my hand on the guard. I tossed the smaller blade onto a rock anvil I had set up. It was the closest to any flat, hard surface I was going to find in a forest. Then, raising my hammer, I began to pound on the first blade. I saw bits and pieces of impurities fall off, and I grinned.
This was it! He could do this!
He pounded again and again and again until no more impurities fell off.
I didn't have anything to cool it with, so I just kept on pounding until the red disappeared as the blade cooled down.
Then I [Observe]d.
Reforged Troll Iron Dagger (Abnormal) [LvL 17]
A decent dagger made in the human city of Alba(Destroyed)
*+20 physical damage to an unarmored target
*+10% physical damage on top of base damage if used with stealth skills
*+5% physical damage after defense calculations if wielder is of Troll evolution
Ping!
New Skill!
Crafting (LvL 1)
The path to civilization and destruction lies here
*Allows for the learning of the construction of new objects.
*Allows for the construction of new objects with the required tools.
*Allows for the construction of abnormal and above-ranking items.
*Generic Items
Ping!
New Quest!
Learn from Shirou!
(Available only when "Mystery of Shirou" is active with the skill of [Crafting])
Requirement:
*Do not upset Shirou when confronting him
*Learn from Shirou the skill [Structural Analysis]
Bonus Objective:
*Learn from Shirou Projection
Reward:
*+1 LvL Up!
*New Skill: Structural Analysis
*New Skill: Minor Arcane Crafting
*New Crafting Item: Stone Pickaxe
*New Crafting Item: Nameless Blade
New Alliance: *** Shirou of *******
*Shirou: New Skill: Teacher
*Shirou: New Title: Magus
*Shirou: New Evolution:?
Failure:
*Shirou may leave the colony (Extremely Uncomfortable)
*Shirou may assault you (Hostile)
*Shirou may take over the colony's leadership (Incompetent)
*Shirou may cut the relationship (Unfriendly)
...
What the fuck.
Character Status by the end of Day 28
Naruto [Imp Ruto] [Troll Ruto]
LvL 21
The Gamer
HP: 83 (+1.5 Max HP per day until a month old)(+1.5 HP per hour regen)
Mana: 590 (+5.9 per minute regen)
STR: 44
DEX: 25
AGI: 20
END: 27
INT: 41
WIS: 43
CHA: 8
Unused Points: 112
Spirit: 35
Magic: 24
Power: 24
Traits Taken + Earned:
Ambitious, Quick, Genius, Weak, Cynical, Stressed, Content, Teacher[Neutral] (Unavailable)
Focus:
Growing
Racial Traits:
Beast Slaying (max)
Troll Blood (max)
Skills:
Ambush (LvL 4)
Baiting (LvL 11)
Blade Mastery (LvL 2)
Charging (LvL 4)
Clairvoyance (LvL 1)
Crafting (LvL 1)
Fishing (LvL 2)
Intimidation (LvL 3)
Leadership (LvL 2)
Listening (LvL 7)
Running (LvL 3)
Throwing (LvL 8)
Trapping (LvL 13)
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