Chapter 3: Chapter 3
After five minutes of pure pain, I breathe heavily, my face facing towards the ground. I've already taken notice of the fact that I've gained the ability to see through the dark. I open my status window and take a look.
"Condition, tired," I agree with that statement in my head. "A skill I gained… Night Vision. It's at max level and I can turn it on and off? Maybe it's when I don't need it when I go to a place where sunlight is present."
I slowly stand up, wobbling from pain. My legs and arms feel like complete jelly because of the increase in muscle and strength.
"Ugh…" There's nothing I can hold onto to stabilize myself, so I just recover by standing still. Once I recovered, I looked around to see where I was and what to do.
"Huh, looks like this is a pretty empty space," I say to myself. "I guess it will be a good place to set up a base… I've read many manhwas, so I think I'm pretty knowledgeable about what to do. Let's get on with it now!"
With an increase in strength, I'm able to gather stones from the cave. Although, I don't know what to do with them…
"Hm…" I look at the large pile of stone. "If only I had a weapon… A weapon!"
Of course! I need a weapon! Luckily, there are many sharp stones around here… And with this…" I hold the sharp stone and stab it against the stone. I see a crack. "Progress! This is progress!"
Then a thought occurred to me. What if I just made whetstone? It's the most important thing for survival since it sharpens stones and weapons with just water.
"I heard water dripping earlier, so maybe I can get that…" I thought. I set down the sharp rock and walk around for a little while, listening for droplets and walking to where I think it is. "Aha!"
I found it! Thankfully, it's not too far away from where I started, but it's still a good six-minute walk. I'll have to set up my base here if I want to use the stones as weapons.
With much more work, I was able to carry all of the stones near the dripping water. This part of the cave is what you would typically see in a normal cave. Dripstone covers most of the ceiling of the cave, although they are up very high. Water drips down and covers the hard ground with wetness, some puddles of water sprayed throughout the area. Of course, gathering a large amount of water is better when making whetstone, but I have to make do with the resources I already have.
I sit down and start doing my work. I don't know everything about surviving, but I am one to research very trivial things. I remember watching a video about making a whetstone. All I had to do was get water and two flat pieces of stone. Luckily, half of my pile is flat stones. With a puddle of water in front of me, I dipped the stones into the shallow water. The stones barely fit in the water.
"Time to work!" I smile. I grind the stones against each other, ultimately smoothing both stones. I knew it was going to take me a while until it became smooth, but all I have to do is be patient and continue.
"UGH!" I groan loudly as I let go of the two thin and wet stones. I lay down on my back. "I'm finally done!"
"Congratulations! You have completed: Making of a Whetstone! You've earned a bucket of water and the skill: Craftsmanship!"
"Oh?" I smirked at the window that popped up. Just like what the window said, a medium-sized bucket of water appeared next to me. I smile at the new source of water that'll last me for a while. Although, I am curious about the new skill I received. I open my status window and read the description for it.
[ Craftsmanship (Practical Skill) (Level 1)
It is a useful skill in which the user can efficiently craft weapons, armor, and items using resources. +10% efficiency in crafting and a +5% in higher durability when crafting equipment. ]
"That's incredibly useful!" My eyes sparkle. "It'll be worth it to level up this skill too! This skill is probably called a practical skill because it's more suitable for survival. And I'm glad!"
I sharpen a pointy stone with my smooth whetstone. It's thin, but it's decent. It doesn't have the effects that my craftsmanship provides since this is the cause of it appearing in my skill list. Even so, it's still a pretty decent whetstone. It only took me three minutes to sharpen the stone, which is a surprisingly fast time.
"Ooo," I hold up the sharpened stone in my hand. It's sharp, with above-average durability. If only I had a stick and rope… And now I'm thinking of other things I need. Clothes, food- Food! I need food! How am I going to survive in a cave if I don't have any food!?
I quickly stand up and run around the cave to find animals or any vegetation. In terms of survival, hunting is better in a situation like this. It'd be better if I encountered an animal that doesn't have any type of intellect and survives based on instinct. It's easier for my easy heart.
Eventually, I ran into a swarm of bats. And that was bad.
"UGH! HAGH!" I fend for myself by swinging around my stone. It's not a good decision, because there's a ton of bats. I let out an "urk!" as several bats bite me with their fire-enforced fangs. It burns, it burns! Is there any way to bring this out immediately!?
"I know!" I yell after a second of thought. "ADAPT!"
The skill activates, and I gain fire and biting resistance as my body adapts to the situation of the bats. I open my mouth in shock as I read the window, but then I go back to attempting to defeat the bats. I continue to grunt and yell as the bats keep biting me. The power from these bites is intense!
"You damn bats!" I yell at them. I enhanced the stone to make it slightly stronger, and because of that, I was able to kill some of them. "As long as I keep the Adapt skill activated, I will continue to level up my current resistances!"
After fifteen minutes of fighting off the bats, I finally killed all of them. I stood on top of the seemingly endless pile of dead bats, heaving from the fight. I look around to see the dead bodies of these animals who tried to kill me.
"Condition, tired. As always," I look at my status window to see if I gained any levels or not. I make a slightly confused face as I look at the levels. "Hm, even after killing all those bats, I only gained two levels…? And my resistances also gained two levels. Looks like leveling up, in general, is pretty hard… I'm going to have to do some serious grinding."
Well, it's not too much of a problem. I now have a sufficient amount of bats to use, especially their meat and fangs. I don't know if I can eat bats since I've never done research on the matter, but it's the only source of meat I have. For their fangs, I'll use it for carving since it's average-sized, but not big enough for me to use it as a weapon.
I carry a pile of bats to my base, sighing with relief when I see that nothing has changed. I throw them near the pile of stones. Then, another problem has struck me.
"I need fire," I say. This should've been obvious… In order to eat food, I need fire to cook meat. Let's just hope that this cave has both flint and steel, otherwise, my survival in this cave would be a guaranteed death. "Wait… The bats have fire fangs, so does that mean that they can form fire? I don't have any sticks or leaves, but maybe using the hair of the bats can be used, if they're flammable."
It's better than nothing!
I start shaving off the ugly hairs of the bats with my sharp stone, being careful to not damage the body. I put it all in a pile as I inspected the body of the bat.
"It's possible that these bats are unusually large because they store two sacs of different chemicals," I feel the bat's body, stopping to poke at the section where I felt something. "And then they mix the chemicals together to slightly light their fangs on fire. If I figure out how to do that though, I'll have to do some experimenting…"
For the next two hours, I dissected bats to figure out how their fire fang attacks worked, so that I could have a fire source. Luckily, I was able to find out the answer.
"AHA!" I smiled widely when I held up two sacs, one containing what I theorize is ethanol, and the other containing mysterious small orbs the size of ants. "My research is done! These bats live in caves, so of course, with a lack of oxygen they wouldn't be able to make much fire, but since this world is different than the one back thirty years ago, it's possible that the sac with the orbs are a type of fire orb that reacts with the ethanol and temporarily makes the fangs go on fire, or at least heat it up. The reaction process happens through the through, which I assume takes a toll on the bat's own body, but from what I've seen their internal bodies are actually resistant to fire! How amazing…"
I feel like a nerd again. It's been such a long time since I've done hands-on research that I was interested in… At least this cave is not making me insane!
I attempt to cut open the ethanol sac a little bit, but it pops all over the hairs.
"It's fine," I say to myself. "I have plenty of other bats I can use."
I decided to only use two of the small orbs. Just as I predicted, they react with the ethanol and light the pile of hairs on fire. Unfortunately, the fire was quite large.
"JEEZ!" I step back from the unusually large fire. The height goes up to my knees! But, it's what I wanted anyway. I prepare the bat meat, slowly remove the bones (bones are my least favorite parts of animals), and lay the small pieces on large flat stones. Taking this chance to enhance my fire resistance, I take the risk of burning my hands and use my hands as a way to lift the stone over the fire. I wince and yell loudly as my hands make contact with the fire.
"Adapt!" I yell. "AAAGGH!-"
This is too painful! Why did I think this was a good idea!?
I use Adapt multiple times as I cook the meat. The stone heats up, and my hands experience third-degree burns. My yells turn into screams as time goes on, using my skill to get used to the fire and heat.
After fifteen minutes, I let go of the stone and drop it onto the ground, making a loud SMACK, the sound echoing throughout the cave. I kneel down immediately, groaning as I check my hands. They're burnt, that's for sure. But it's not as bad as I initially thought.
"Are you kidding me…" I sigh to myself. It's what I get for doing something as reckless as that. But was it worth it? Of course! With a surprising number of twenty HP left, my fire resistance increased by three levels! I even gained heat resistance, being level 3. Not as much as I was hoping, but it was promising progress.
I quickly healed, enhancing my mana (apparently, I also had some magic with me, but not too much) to heal up my hands much more. With the realization that I have magic, I thought that all of that hard work was for nothing. But, my magic isn't even that strong, and I can't even form a spark of fire. I'll practice my magic later.
"Time to eat…" I stare at the bat meat on the stone. I'm really apprehensive about this… What if the meat was toxic? Even so, I have no other choice… I carefully pick up a small piece of meat. It's the size of my palm. I gulp. I throw the piece of meat in my mouth, my teeth chewing on it. I widen my eyes and I choke out the meat. I cough rapidly as I activate my skill, gaining a Toxic Resistance.
"God damn it," I cough out. The meat is toxic. But there's nothing else I can do! What a sad life… I pick up the meat again, frowning as I play with it. With a sigh, I start chewing on the meat. I activate Adapt. With a bunch of gagging, coughs, and hesitation, I was able to eat all of the meat.
"Is the meat that bad that my toxin resistance is already at level seven?" I raise my eyebrow as I look at my status window. "Condition is… exhausted. Yeah, that sounds about right."
I lay completely flat on the ground. I stare up at the empty ceiling above me. I still cannot believe that I'm stuck in a situation like this. It's… not as good as when I was back in my apartment, but it's honestly better here than over there. I don't have to worry about rent, old ex-friends, and most importantly, I'm not in the presence of my family…
"I'll just adapt to this situation," I say to myself. "I'll… I'll be someone that's unbelievable. Someone that past me would not believe is myself. Haha! That's a funny thought… After all that though… I'm… tired…"
I close my eyes. I see nothing but darkness, but that's a good thing when you fall asleep. Tomorrow, it will be another day like today. One day closer where this will become the new normal.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone