章 6: 6. Bye-bye stone age!

Three days later.

Day 9.

'Should be hot enough.', Liam thought.

In front of him was a primitive clay forge, within it was a ceramic crucible that contained molten tin and copper.

It was a slow and tedious process of breaking stones, melting everything, waiting till it cooled down, taking the copper and tin of what was melted, and rinse and repeat until he got something usable but thanks to this he got a kilo and half of bronze.

It's not much in his point of view but that's a start and he still has more stones rich in copper and tin, sadly he didn't find iron in any substantial quantity to be useful, he could make a nail, and this iron could basically be considered steel.

He picked the crucible by its handle with a multilayered glove made of stingbats' hide, and carefully poured the molten alloy into a clay mould. It was in the shape of a tear-shaped blade, he was casting a spearhead.

Spear, a category of weapon he loved since he was a kid, not only did he find them cool but also because factually spears are if not the best hand-held-edged weapon in mankind's history.

They could also be used as a ranged weapon in some cases and the body of the spear could be used as a quarterstaff. Really sticks with pointy ends were that let humanity conquers the world and each other.

And with his strength a spear with metal heads of any kind will do serious damage, he only needed to get better at wielding the weapon itself.

Not that this was unique to spears, for him wielding a fantasy-type war hammer was even possible. However, the weapons he wield had more chance of breaking than anything else, weapons made for average humans were overall unadapted for him.

A bronze spearhead was a very good start and he will do more than one spear, it could break and he was going to throw them. He won't stop himself from using his inventory to the fullest of his capabilities.

Now Liam needed to wait for it to cool down, he was casting metal there was no need to repeatedly beat it with a hammer.

Turning his head, his stomach grumbled at the sight of the viperwolf's meat smoking above a small fire in a small makeshift smokehouse made of clay bricks, stones, wood, and large leaves. Way better than sun curing and there was no chance for his food to be stolen.

All the grass around the tree was cut, to avoid some fiery accident. Speaking of fire making, it was surprisingly easy to him, it was made even easier to keep it alive with an excellent fuel in the form of a type of wood rich in carbon.

Eating his fill, which was quite a lot, and he still felt he could eat more. Liam put an uneven ball of raw copper and tin in another ceramic crucible and then in the forge for another casting, now he needed to wait until it was molten.

Then he simply sat on a pile of dirt in front of the forge, his specimen implant glowed for a brief second and a piece of pearl white wood appeared in his left hand, he also took out his trusty black seashell knife and started to carve the piece of wood into the handle of a knife.

The blade was going to be one of the female viperwolf's fangs, they were long at least 20 centimeters (8in) serrated, and oddly metallic. At the moment the one he was going to use was cleaned of the blood vessels, nerves, pulps, and the like.

The other body parts of the viperwolves or anything from animals he killed, he was going and planned to use couldn't be, or more appropriately shouldn't be used right after the kill as they could rot and cause other problems later down the line. It's a generality but one that must be taken into consideration.

The most evident being the skin of animals and the long process needed for it to be turned into leather. It wasn't a game with materials that magically transform with the push of a button, it was real life, his life.

It put things into perspective how easy life was on Earth, every little convenience such as food in the supermarket to a green LED garland for example.

This random and mostly useless item came from long and complicated chains that led to others' long and complicated chains for its creation and then to be sold.

Humanity was like a superorganism, one with some little self-destructive tendencies but still. And he needed to recreate everything from scratch it will be… Hard. He was freer than he ever was here, but freedom came at a cost.

'Finished… Hmmm, maybe I'll carve some animals in it after I polish it. Maybe one of those hexapod wolves with a regular wolf.', Liam thought, it was simply an aesthetic touch but it was good for his mental health, storing the handle in his inventory he focused back on the now molten bronze.

He had work to do.

Two weeks later.

Day 23.

Liam's left hand was deep into the soil, his implant humming as the ground was slowly getting absorbed within his inventory. He was finishing digging the pitfall for a particular creature he grew to hate more and more.

He was going to kill the great austrapede by his own hands, he promised himself that and he was going to hold it to the end. However, he wasn't going to play fair, he was going to stack all the odds in his favor.

Taking his hand out of the dirt he shook it and the thrum and glow of the implant receded, he had a sort of 'overheat', he couldn't absorb dirt indefinitely, as far he knew he could take two tons, and two tons out before needing to let his survivor implant 'cool' down.

He wasn't dumb enough to test the upper limit, not that they weren't inbuilt safety but it was still dumb to test something like this here… In the wild of an alien world.

Whipping the sweat off his forehead, looking up at the position of the sun, the gas giant right next to this sight slowly but surely became familiar and he didn't know how to feel about that.

At the moment, he was only wearing a pair of pants, and as such dirt covered his bare muscular, and tanned upper body.

His waist-long brown hair was put in dreadlocks themselves put in a ponytail, his beard was shaved and all in all, he tried to take care of how he looked to a certain degree. He still looked like a caveman but what could he do but accept this fact? It's not like there was anyone to judge him, it's not like he would have cared either.

At his waist attached to his skin belt was a small ceramic pot full of glowing worms he found underground since he had started a farm. Earthworms, even if glowing and probably deadly for human consumption, should prove helpful for improving the soils. Or even use them as bait.

Shaking his head Liam looked proudly at what he did; a 6 meter (20ft) deep and 8 meter (26ft) long by 7 meters (23ft) large rectangular hole in the ground, a smaller hole in it that led to the outside and woods with bricks supporting everything in place, it was a pit.

A trapping pit to be exact, one he could jump over with ease, his body being superior in all points to any Olympic athlete seen in the history of mankind. He was inhuman in those aspects to put it simply.

The only things he lacked were their experience and deep knowledge about their own bodies' limits and capabilities.

He was still learning and discovering new things every day about his body capabilities. Muscle memories and instincts also helped.

He wasn't risking running on the roof of the pit and falling in it while he played the living bait. Even with nothing in his inventory, he wasn't particularly lightweight.

A bronze ground tamperer appeared in his left hand and he compacted the dirt at the bottom of the pit until all of it was hard and flat. Crawling up through the tunnel he ran back the ten or so kilometers of distance to his base, his bare feet leaving deep footprints with the inventory weight.

There had been many changes too, one of the most noticeable and permanent ones as he was continually working on improving what he had instead of being content and getting complacent.

It was a brick well closed by a trapdoor leading straight to a water table two dozen meters below and it was right next to the tree. When he discovered it he was euphoric, to say the least, and felt a bit dumb that what he was searching for was right beneath his feet.

Crystal clear drinkable water at the bottom explained the tree and how vibrant it was since the first day he was here it never rained once, not that he was an expert on trees even less on alien trees.

The only thing missing was a piping system with a water pump to have a semblance of running water but that was more of a luxury than a true necessity for his current lifestyle. But he will do it.

Depositing all of the dirt, stones, and gravels each on its separate pile, he quickly cleaned himself, ate, and drank. He then took what he needed for a camouflaged roof and other miscellaneous materials to satisfy his perfectionist side before he ran back to the trap pit.

Two days later.

Day 25.

Liam was checking if everything at the pitfall trap was ready, he was wearing a cuirass armor made of bone, hide, wood, and bronze that protected most of his back, and a bronze helmet that also partially protected his nape without impeding his movement.

Arm guards were made of wood and bones with one having a random carving of a panda, and a pair of pants made of viperwolf hide with some protection in the form of bronze plates protecting the major artery of the legs and that was essentially it. He didn't wear shoes as he run faster without them, it felt more natural too.

Wearing armor resonated strangely good with a part of him he didn't know he had and felt just like your everyday clothing.

All in all, it was light armor and won't stop even a bear from mauling him to death if he doesn't punch the bear to death before.

Metaphor aside, it was more here to protect against indirect hits from the great austrapede. The type of hit that practically made him a paraplegic and would have sealed his fate to a long, slow, and painful death.

'Everything seems in order.', he thought, as he just finished checking everything. The pit was nearly invisible as he camouflaged the surroundings similar to the pit trap's ceiling itself.

Doing some jump tests over the pit just to be sure, Liam then jogged to one of the spots where the great as trapped should be.

He studied the alien bird, where it moved during the day and night, what it ate, and slept, and its behavior and patterns, even if the last few days he has seen some minor changes in these patterns.

All from far away without getting noticed, not that it was hard, the great bird lacked eyes and was mostly unaware of its surroundings as it was the strongest animal in a fifty-kilometer radius, and one of the strongest land, period.

As such a healthy adult of this species had nearly no natural predator.

Two hours later.

Hidden within tall dry grass was a human, Liam took out his sling and a small ovoid lead pebble. In front of him was a field with tall bushes full of black star-shaped fruit, and around 100 meters (328 ft) away his target was eating from one such bush with the help of its massive claws.

Putting the lead pebble into the pouch of the sling Liam stood up and started spinning the sling, it rapidly became a blur to the eyes. He was putting just enough force and speed to reach the sling limit only a little less before it broke apart.

His ethereal gray eyes focused on the great austraped who was more of a dot from this distance, but a dot he could see in clear detail. It was a long shot, but one he trained himself to be able to do, a feat he wouldn't have been able to accomplish before.

'3… 2… 1… 0… And fire!', he thought, fully concentrated and focused, the sling was ripped apart cracking the air as if it was thunder like a whip would and the pebble was hurled into the air with an even louder crack.

All of his body flexed as a mere second later a squawk of primal rage was heard, the lead pebble having perforated the membrane of one of the great austrapede's back wings. It was scanning its surrounding wing flared in aggression.

"HEY, SON OF A BITCH! DO YOU REMEMBER ME?! COME HERE!", he screamed at the top of his lungs and instantly turned back and sprinted to where his trap was as fast as his legs could carry him.