Chapter 9: Run boy run...
Harrison walked out from the ice cold pond again and wiped himself off while shivering.
Being forced to drink another diarrhea potion as a preventative measure against infection was a pain in the ...
"At this rate I am going to get hemorrhoids or at least a cold.", he mumbled as he walked towards the ratbit corpse.
As he came up the slope wiping his hair and body with the clothes he saw an orange dog sized animal looking at him.
"Ohhh no you won't. Don't even think about stealing my ratbit!!!." he yelled as he rushed towards the corpse.
He took out his bow and an arrow but was otherwise still in his birthday suit his member flapping in the wind.
The first reaction of the creature was crouching down to make itself small. The ratbit was in the middle between them. As Harrison got closer, it started going in reverse but suddenly like deciding he was not enough of a threat it raised its head.
It looked like an overgrown orange fox with rabbit ears. In a way it was very cute until it opened up its mouth filled with sharp teeth and showed its two inch canines.
Harrison came at a stop looking at those teeth which was a potentially fatal mistake. The fox like creature noticed in immediately that its intimidation worked and started running towards Harrison.
He tried knocking an arrow as it was running towards him but he never really practiced on a moving target especially one that was threatening his life.
As it came within 5 meters, he threw the bow in its direction and started running towards the waterfall.
The fox like creature noticed the bow flying in its direction and dodged it losing a bit of its momentum but not for long.
As Harrison came to the edge of the waterfall which was 5 meters high he hesitated in jumping and turned around only to find the animal flying towards his neck.
He somehow managed to dodge it and push its head sideways but still got hit by its torso and they both fell off the cliff.
The hunter had more momentum, so it flew a bit further but with two loud splashes they both landed in the pond.
"Aaaaaa. Moth**f****r!!!", he yelled as he came up and noticed the animal was paddling with its paws in his direction. It has obviously decided he was its next meal and was not taking a no for an answer.
It was much slower in the water compared to him so he swam away from it. It followed him which pissed him off knowing he was no match for its speed on land.
"You want to eat me? Eat this!!!" he yelled as the animal came within one meter from him.
It had its mouth open and teeth shown on full display with its rabbit ears sticking like antennae from the water. Having the soundtrack from the Jaws movie at that moment in the background would be most appropriate.
Just when it came within half a meter Harrison stuck his hand in its direction and materialized a sword from his inventory directly poking it into its open jaw with the same momentum his empty hand made.
"Eat this, bitch." he yelled.
The animal stopped swimming in his direction and made a squealing sound.
He yanked it back, and blood came rushing from its mouth. Returning it to his inventory he tried the same action again sticking his hand in front of it but this time it dodged.
"Ohhh yeah. Try this!!!" he yelled as he let go of the sword and pretended to do a downward slash on it's head with an imaginary weapon which materialized as the heavy battleaxe right on top of the animal's head with a terrifying momentum that split its head apart.
The axe and the sword both sank with the animal as Harrison finally got a breather and his adrenalin levels slowly dropped.
He dived after it and managed to stick the corpse and both weapons into his inventory on the first try. The pond being crystal clear made a big contribution.
He left the pond gasping for air and made his way back to the cave picking up the ratbit's corpse on the way. Drying himself off and putting his clothes back on he thought about how he found another way to use his inventory,
He swung his hand and materialized his sword when his hand speed reached the apex and it made a swishing sound but soon the sword was swinging him since it was much heavier than he was able to control and the momentum swung him around before he let it go and it flew from his hands.
It made a few clanking noises as it hit the earth and rocks and eventually stopped.
'It will be ok if I hit something but otherwise this will leave me open for a counterattack but I can use this with some rocks or other heavy objects to dump on the other party or to block attacks.' he mused as he played different scenarios in his head.
As he picked up the sword he came upon a small tree, and swung his hand imagined the battleaxes orientation in his hand he materialized from his inventory and it hit the tree with a terrifying speed chopping it trough with a single swing. The only bad thing was the recoil shock on the handle which made his hand hurt a bit but it was a price he was more than willing to pay for this effect.
"Now who should I cook first? The ratbit or the foxbit. The ratbit did bite me so I should take a bite of it first.", he mused in boredom as he collected dry wood into his inventory as he needed a fire for cooking. He noticed that anything above two meters in size could not fit inside.
When he thought he had enough he went a bit further away from the cave to the stream and took out a dagger and the ratbit corpse. As he looked it over he made a small incision on it's back and pulled on it with his hands in different directions. The fur was torn in half by this action and he kept pulling. The skin on the bottom peeled away nicely and got stuck on it's hind paws while the front got stuck on the front paws and its head. He cut off the front paws and pulled some more and the head part was removed like that. The hind paws were chopped off next. He put both bloody skins into his inventory after washing them in the water from the stream then removed the innards and chopped off the head part. He tossed them into the woods as far as he could.
He put the washed carcass into his inventory and climbed up his cave home. He went to the other side of the crevasse and stacked the firewood and kindling then looked over his inventory for some kind of firestarting tool. He was sure it must be in there since it was an essential tool.
After looking at almost every miscellaneous item he had he finally found an item designated as flint.
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Item name: Flint
Quality: Low
Special effects: none
Description: Used to create sparks when rubbed with iron objects.
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He used the almost destroyed dagger on it which he first used for wood cutting and it did what it was supposed to. He first gathered together something that looked like dried moss and let sparks fly on it. After a couple of tries and a lot of blowing the fire finally took. He putt a few smaller branches on it and when they caught on fire, he put bigger ones on top.
Fire started to burn more fiercely and the cave was glowing with red and orange colors dancing on the ceiling and walls. A pop-up appeared.
Firebug skill unlocked.
Firebug skill LVL. 1 acquired.
Bonus Fire element affinity +1
'System are you telling me I am some kind of pyromaniac arsonist for starting one fire meant for cooking.' he thought in his mind and chuckled.
As he looked at the fire slowly burning and his cave filling up with a warmth he had not experienced on this side of reality for a very long time he slowly contemplated how he was going to cook the ratbit.
Climbing down the cave he looked around for any Y shaped branches on nearby trees thick enough to support his idea. He soon found two and chopped them off with his one handed sword using the inventory for boosting it's speed.
While inside the cave he soon found out his idea was not applicable as he imagined it and he had to modify it. He wanted to stick the two Y shaped sticks into the ground but since the cave floor was a rock, he could not. He piled up some loose rocks on both sides of the fire as stick holders and shortened the Y shaped sticks so they neatly stuck out from the rock piles. Then he took out a one hander and the ratbit carcass. He pushed the short sword trough the carcass and tied an L shaped stick on the sword's pointy end with a rope.
The sword's handle was on one end of the Y shaped stick and the L shaped stick went over the other Y shaped stick and above the fire the ratbit was slowly roasting. By the time he was done fire was mostly gone and only the heat rose from the campfire.
He slowly turned the L shaped stick as the ratbit was making cracking noises from the boiling fat and getting a nice yellow brown color which replaced the pink meat colour of the dead carcass.
Harrison was salivating at the thought of his first meal when a ding interrupted his thoughts.
Cooking skill unlocked.
Cooking skill LVL. 1 acquired.
Bonus Vitality +1
'Well that is a nice surprise but it had to be expected by now.' he chuckled as he removed the yellow brown ratbit from the fire and put it on some clean clothes since he did not have any plates.
He cut off a front leg and nibbled. The juices flowed into his mouth. The meat was chewy since it was a wild animal and it's muscles were well developed compared to cage bread animals we are used to eating. If he could remember eating a roasted rabbit, he would think it's the same kind of fine-textured and almost all white, with a flavor and appearance similar to chicken meat.
"Thank you system for telling me it's done otherwise I would have surely have overcooked it.", he said and continued eating.
The taste was way better than the dried meat he was eating before but it was bland. It was all texture mixed with some oily juices.
"It could use a bit of salt. What kind of people don't bring any salt with them." he exclaimed while gorging himself on the soft meat from the front leg.
Soon he finished it and stuck the bones in his inventory and cut off the hind leg. He ate the whole thing since it ws not really big to begin with. He drank some water and let out a satisfied burp.
Putting the bones into his inventory he tried it with the whole rest of the roasted ratbit minus the one-handed sword and the L stick and it went in as well. He put some more wood on the fire since he enjoyed the warmth it brought to his cave.
He checked it in his inventory.
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Item name: Roasted "ratbit"
Quality: Low
Special effects: none
Description: Warm. Missing some pieces and tasting bland.
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'Hmmm. Looks like the system is some sort of mix between an AI and my subconscious thoughts.' he thought. He went to his cozy corner and rested a bit before dozing off.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone