Chương 5: Dragon Squirrels Suck
With no real plan, I started wandering around the forest. I had no clue as to where I was, let alone how to leave the forest. While walking I was going through my satchel taking inventory. The only thing I had close to a weapon was a knife, which had roughly a 3.5-inch blade.
[Yeah, I'm going to have to get a better weapon, preferably with some reach.]
Looking around I found a decent-sized branch a little taller than me and fairly straight. I then sit down and start to whittle away at the branch cutting off any protrusions, straightening it out, and finally carving a sharp end. I stand up and continue walking.
"So, I need food, water, and shelter. The shelter is the easiest one, I think. Need to focus on the other two."
"Yes, that seems good. Why don't we try to find food on our way to find water?"
I know the whole talking to my self is a result of the drugs in my system, but why does it sound like a second personality? I'll have to ask Teona about that later.
I look around the forest trying to find anything edible. I do find something like berries and other types of I guess fruit. They look like pears but they have brown fuzzy skin. I tried a taste to see if it was at least good, and it was, tasted just like a pear. As I was focusing on the pear a window popped up.
Arel: An edible fruit with brown fuzzy skin. Poisonous to dragonkin.
That is really handy, with this I can identify food and whether or not it is poisonous. I collect a few of the fuzzy brown pears and continue on my way. As the day was getting on, I came across a strange animal. It looked like a squirrel but slightly larger and covered in scales. I focus on it the same way I did with the fruit and its stats appear as well.
Elessir: A small type of rodent dragonkin. Breathes small flames and can glide.
HP: ?/?
So, it does show its stats to me. It even had HP but I couldn't see it, does that mean it is stronger than me? Also, does the system just convert stuff to numbers for me to see as well? I have a lot of questions that I need to ask next time I speak with Teona. I pick up a fist-sized rock and take aim at the dragon squirrel. Hoping to at least stun it, I throw the rock as accurately as I can.
*Thud! *
I ended up missing and the elessir jumps off the tree and glides towards me. I pull out my spear and try to stab it but instead, I get a face full of flame.
"Ouch!"
"Oh yeah real smart idiot, you forget that it can breathe fire?"
It's pretty bad when your sorta second personality scolds you. Taking my loss, I turn and run away. I already have enough food to last a couple of days don't need to get anymore greedy. After some time and a few eyebrows short, I found myself next to a small stream. Taking this time, I refill my waterskin and drink what I can. I also attempt to wash myself and my clothes.
"To be honest I thought being a girl would be all dramatic for me, but it seems I just don't care enough."
"That is because we spent 4 years in that body, also you haven't been in society, who knows how we would react."
"You sure you aren't just a personality I developed or something?"
"Who knows
Maybe I really am crazy. I don't know what to do anymore. Part of me just wants to give up, but most of me wants to tell the gods they can shove it and prove I can survive. After my sad excuse for clothes have dried, I get dressed and start to follow the stream down. Maybe I'll get lucky and come across a river or a lake.
Dusk starts to creep up, so I stop and try to find someplace suitable. I decide to sleep in a tree for the night. I don't what animals live in this world, but if it is anything like Earth being in a tree would be a safe bet. I attempt to climb up a tree I found and after several attempts, I finally get to the branch I was aiming for.
Climbing skill acquired
As I was getting comfortable, a notification pops up. Curious I examine it.
Climbing lv1: Climbing is easier and can be done faster.
Is everything I do going to become a skill; I don't know how I feel about everything I do is like a video game. I relax on the branch and take out an arel to eat. I look up at the sky through the treetops and I watch the setting... Wait are those, two suns? So, this world has two suns, that's kind of cool. Can't wait to see the moon. I try to stay up after the suns set but I quickly find myself falling asleep.
The next morning, I awoke still in the tree but a little cramped up. I go to the stream and wash up, eat a light breakfast. I decide to follow the stream until I can find someplace to hole up, preferably like a cave but I'll probably have to build a shelter myself. Around noon I think, kind of hard to judge having two suns, the stream finally joined up with a larger river. I scout around the area looking for a good place to build a temporary home.
After much searching, I realized that I would be better off in a big tree again. If there are any animals like a bear or even a wolf roaming around then a little shack made out of twigs and leaves won't cut it. After finding a suitable tree, I move on to my next task, finding more food. Feeling where my missing eyebrows were, I decide it is best not to try to hunt the angry dragon squirrels. With spear in hand, I set off trying my best to locate any wild game.
.
.
.
It's been several hours since I started looking through the woods for any animals. I am walking around trying to find tracks of anything or any sign that something has passed by. Oh, did I mention I have zero skill in actually being a tracker or hunter? I didn't find anything so I started my way back to the river to my tree. As I neared the river, I spotted a creature at the bank drinking water, it looked just like a boar. As stealthily as I could, I tried to sneak up on the boar.
Stealth skill acquired.
[Oh, good I got a useful skill.]
It didn't help though, I stepped on a twig and the boar stopped drinking and turned my way. With a loud squeal, it charged at me. I readied my makeshift spear and thrust at it. I only managed to graze its side and it still hit me knocking me over. I felt a sharp pain in my ankle as I fell. It then charged at me again, panicking all I can manage to do is lift the spear up in front of me. I felt an impact and something hit me in my face.
"Ow, that really hurts."
Dazed, I rub my face feeling something wet. Looking down at my hand I see blood, guess my nose got bloodied. I finally notice the lifeless boar laying on top of me. I push it off of me and then try to drag it back to my tree. It was a bit difficult as my ankle was probably sprained.
Now I have to do a thing I have never done before, dismantle and cook an animal. I spent a lot of time trying to skin and prepare the boar. The sun was starting to set so I gathered up materials and made a campfire. I use the back of the knife and the flint I had to start it but took me several minutes to even do. While my dinner was cooking, I move the boar away from my tree, no way I can eat all of it and it would spoil too fast for me to try and save any. So, I decided to let other animals have at it, plus if it was away from my tree, they might leave me alone.
After eating a satisfying meal, I attempted to climb the tree, my ankle didn't help any. I finally got to a good height I sat on my branch and watched the fire die down. Using this moment, I prayed to Teona as I had some questions.
"Um, hey Teona? You there?"
After a moment of silence, a reply comes back echoing through my mind.
"Wow, you sure know how to pray to a goddess, don't you? Just drop all formalities."
"I'm sorry, I didn't know how I should address you."
"Ha, you're fine just wanted to mess with you. So, was up?"
This goddess has no sense of divinity, does she?
"I had a few questions for you."
"First The whole me talking to my self-thing. I think I have a second personality, is there a way to fix this?"
There is another long silence.
"Ok so I just scanned your mind and I think I found what you are talking about."
"You don't really have a second personality but it is close. Due to the drugs as well as the trauma you experienced; your mind is fragmented."
"Wait so what does that mean?"
"In short, you will need to find some way to deal with your past trauma and put your mind back together. You could say that the mind of Jesse is in conflict with the mind of Allynna."
"So, by coping the two will merge?"
"Yes, but if you don't deal with it then you might lose your mind to Allynna and your old self will disappear."
Good to know, so I need to somehow deal with and accept my trauma or else.
"So my next question. I am level one, so I assume I need to kill stuff to level up?"
"Yes, that's right. By killing creatures and other intelligent life, you will absorb their experiences into your own soul. Collect enough of this experience and you level up."
"will any of this have any unwanted effects."
"No, not really, though you might find yourself with knowledge you didn't have before."
So, I am literally gaining the experiences of other living beings. The random knowledge thing might be nice too.
"My last question for now. These skills I am gaining, how do they work?"
"That one's easy. So, by performing a skill you will learn it. This means that as long as you have the skill and level for it, you will never forget how to do said skill.
"I got it. So, If I learned calculus, then even after like 10 years I'll never forget it?"
"Yes, that right. The more you use a skill, the more it levels. Also, there is not a skill for everything. Some skills are grouped together as one skill. Also learning a skill may bring with it other pieces of knowledge you may not have had before."
That is pretty nice to have. At least I won't forget how to do stuff.
"Thanks. That's all the questions I had for now."
"Ok, but you know you can just talk to me, whenever right?"
She seemed a little sad just now. I guess I'll have to talk to her more.
"I will, but I'll do that once I can get a proper home."
With that, the prayer ended. I looked up at the night sky and looked at the moon. It was much bigger than the one on earth. With a yawn, I decided to go to sleep. Over the next couple of weeks, I spent my time traveling along the river just hunting, exercising, and trying to craft some little stuff. Though halfway through the second week I started to get the withdrawals. That really sucked as I generally had a low fever and I was forced to do a lot of sleeping. I also quite lethargic and my appetite was very low, this endangered my survival as I had to force my self to move and do things I didn't feel like doing. I cooled off as much as I could using the river which was nice, but there were times I couldn't sleep in a tree because I was too weak. I also ended up eating a lot of arels, hoping that it at least had enough nutrition to hold me over. During these times I tried to find a hard to reach shelter, such as roots under trees and such, just to try and hide my presence. After about four days the symptoms weakened a lot and it became more bearable.
After the withdrawals, I spent another week training my self again. I managed to craft some cheap leather clothing to replace my rags. I had lost them a while back had to walk around naked for a while, It was a bit weird because it felt liberating but at the same time, I felt shame even with no one there. I even upgraded my spear to stone and also picked up the crafting skill. I found that the crafting skill only applied to make stuff without tools so I guess blacksmithing would not count, I'm not sure about sewing as I didn't really use a needle to my clothes.
I even tried talking with myself to try and overcome my trauma. Once I thought about it, it would be weirder if a child just walked away from all of that with no consequences. I don't know if the talks are helping but I don't talk to myself as often now.
I decided to continue my journey; I am now just exploring for the sake of exploring. Hunting I got down rather quickly, I started using traps and my tracking skills got better due to my survival skill. My climbing and stealth skills leveled up as well as myself. I found I get one attribute point every level and I can also raise my own attributes by exercising in a way that correlates to the attribute I want to raise. Getting beat-up raised my End and running and crafting raised my AGI.
I was walking along the river when I noticed that I wasn't alone. I readied my spear and continued along my path watching the tree lines for movement. About 20 minutes or so they finally showed up...wolves.
With my back to the river, I squared off against them. There were 7 of them, all looking at me like I was their next big meal. I didn't know if I should fight them or not, they didn't give me a choice and attacked me. The one to my left jumped at me, I swung the back end of the spear into its head and immediately pointed the sharp end at the one at my right and jabbed. It only went in a bit at the base of its shoulder/neck area. I quickly pulled out and went back into my defensive stance.
Two of them jumped at me at once and I did a quick roll to my left, stood up, and stabbed the wolf in its stomach. I knew that one wasn't doing anything for a while. The other wolf had bitten down on my right forearm, I reached with my left and pulled out the knife and stabbed it through the eye as far as it would go. I think it died because it let go and it the ground. I put the knife back and with my spear, in hand, I tried running away.
I don't know how long I was running for but the wolves were keeping pace, probably trying to wear me down. Only 5 were following me, but I still had no way to fight them all off. As I ran, I could hear the river getting louder and soon I came to an open clearing. The wolves not missing an opportunity, they cut me off blocking my escape.
"If you want to eat me, you're gonna have to work for it!" I screamed at the wolves.
Taking that as their cue, the leader by the looks of him lunged at me. Dropping my spear, it took everything I had just to wrestle with the alpha. After a quick tussle, both of us eventually fell into the river. The current swept us downstream with the currents getting stronger. I tried to use the wolf's body as a shield as much as I could whenever we hit a boulder. After several minutes of this, the water was deafening and I could see it drop off at the end.
"Is that a waterfall!?"
"Oh, shit we better hold on, that's going suck!"
I let go of the now lifeless body of the wolf and start to find anything that I can grab a hold of. I manage to grab part of a tree and tried to pull myself onto it, but as my misfortune would have it, it broke. Screaming profanities, I rushed towards the edge. Then I fell. Afterward, everything was dark.
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