Day 3.0
Three days without clothing had the curious effect of having the discomfort fade into the background of his mind. It was still inconvenient as hell, though, and waking up in the dirt would be far less annoying if he had something between him and the ground.
August yawned, pulling himself up into a sitting position and rubbing at his face. The air was crisp, and the world quiet, almost hauntingly so. There were no sounds of people moving about or the distant rumblings of vehicles.
The only real sound was that of Ladybug rolling around by the gate and attempting to scratch its back against the ground.
"Morning," August said, patting the ground beside him. "No trouble?"
Ladybug trilled, abandoning its attempt to scratch its elusive itch, and tromped on over. August reached out and scratched around the fur on its back. If there had been trouble, the little monster had no way to communicate it, but he was alive, so that had to count for something.
August squeezed his hands together and found to his complete surprise that the aching was entirely gone. He squinted at his arms in an attempt to see the small cuts that littered his skin, but there was nothing more than some rough lines, already scarred over.
"How come it healed already?" August said, frowning.
The health regeneration boost shouldn't have kicked in until he'd woken up—he realised what had happened. He'd spent the night waking up for moments and turning over half a hundred times in an attempt to get comfortable on the ground. At least one, if not all of those moments where he'd woken up must have started the two-hour duration.
August scratched at his cheek, it was an unexpected side effect, but it wasn't like he couldn't use the extra healing bonus. Now that he was aware that it worked that way, he could schedule naps during the day to keep away any injuries. Then again, wasting the daylight sleeping seemed like a bad idea all around.
The sun hadn't fully risen yet, so the light was still quite low but just enough so that he could see the lake. The distance robbed most of the details, and the low light certainly didn't help, but when eyes landed on a large boulder on the opposite shore, he was absolutely certain it hadn't been there yesterday.
[Analysis].
Mitikos
Male
Level 21
Tame Progress – 0/210
Tame Resistance – 112
Trait – Pyrrhic
"Where did it come from?" August said, biting down on his lip.
It would need to circle around the entire lake to get over here, and that would take hours—he'd see it coming with plenty of time to move in advance. A giant patterned boulder shuffling along the lakeside wasn't exactly stealthy. If it needed water to survive, then it appearing near the lake made sense.
"Fuck," August muttered, not moving from his position.
Had it come down from the top of the crater while he'd been sleeping? Were there more of them beyond the lip? If he got up and started moving around, it was sure to see him, if it hadn't already. Depending on when exactly it had come down, it might have seen the campfire.
It looked like a rock, and the colour seemed to be grey, with a hint of cobalt through in for good measure. He could almost picture himself trying to stab the thing with his spear and having it snap in two. He couldn't remain sitting still all day for fear of alerting it; he had a hole to finish digging and a basic standard of living to acquire.
[Pyrrhic] wasn't a word he was too familiar with either, other than the phrase 'Pyrrhic Victory'. Usually, that meant that you won the conflict, but the cost was so high that it wasn't worth it in the end—not exactly something that sounded like it would be friendly as Ladybug had been.
August ran over his options quickly before settling on the tried and true method of running away if it started coming towards his camp. He pushed himself to his feet and stepped over the small gate he'd made, and moved towards the pit.
Ladybug hopped the gate like it wasn't even there before waddling after him. Even when he took out his [Wooden Shovel] and hovered by the pit, the boulder didn't move. After a few minutes of nothing, he hopped down into the hole and started digging.
The end of the stake was starting to look pretty busted up, the dirt growing harder and transforming to clay the lower he went. The lumps of clay he dug out all went into his [Inventory], to be used in the future—for what, he wasn't sure yet.
In a moment of curiosity, he toggled [Locate Object] on to see if it picked up on anything inside the soil and was surprised to find that the clay deposits showed up beneath him. Most of them stretched far further than the range of the skill but just knowing where it was allowed him to better dig the area up.
Breaking the clay apart was more taxing than the softer soil, and he was soon forced to take another break. If he hadn't been able to inventory the soil, he would have been hard-pressed to keep tossing the dirt out. The summon pit was almost a meter and a half long, and when he stood inside it, it came up too just above his chest.
Ladybug had given up on helping him dig, her own efforts better served outside of the hole, watching for anything coming to eat them.
Getting out of the damn hole became harder the deeper it got, reminding him greatly of the pit he'd woken up in when he first arrived. Which was kind of the point, in the end, provided he didn't summon an [Otrogon] as big as the one he'd seen on the first day, he'd be in a good position to deal with whatever it was.
The [Mitikos] that had appeared across the lake still had moved from its spot, its life as a boulder as authentic as he could imagine. By the time the pit was entirely over his head August was considering whether an extra foot would do much to help. August climbed out and retrieved his spear to test the range and found he could easily attack anything inside the hole from a relatively safe distance.
It needed something over the top to stop anything from just climbing out, and he set his mind to figuring out how to best go about that. He began removing the younger fallen trees and thicker branches from his Inventory before dragging them over to lay across the hole. It took eight of them to cover it with enough space in between that he could reach a hand inside.
Basic Pit Blueprint Unlocked
"Nice," August noised, as the skill point icon flickered to life in his vision.
He should have probably dug out a trench bisecting the middle of the pit floor, so any rain had someplace to go other than just flooding the pit. Other than some small issues, it was pretty serviceable, provided he was unlucky enough to summon something bigger than the pit itself.
August slipped through the [Menu] and found what he was searching for.
Skill Points: 1
63/500 EXP
That would be [100 EXP] for the [Basic Stonewall Blueprint Unlocked], [Basic Gate Blueprint Unlocked], and [Basic Pit Blueprint Unlocked], respectively, bringing his [EXP] from [75/500] to [475/500]. But he couldn't figure out what had given him the leftover [88 EXP], which was an amount clearly unrelated to blueprints. Did he earn some amount of [EXP] by doing things? Surviving another day? Identifying new creatures? Collecting things? Unlocking [Roles]?
"I guess I'll figure it out eventually," August sighed, depositing the point in the same skill he had the first time.
Replenishment I – 2/5
20% increased health regeneration for two hours after sleeping.
The first of many Voithos will soon be making an appearance(Chapter 24) and i've included artwork so you have some idea what he looks like.
The Systematic Soul Sorting Audiobook has been accepted and is in the process of being distributed. Should be up on a bunch of different places within the month; Audible, Apple, Spotify, Scribd, and plenty others. I'm also continuing my slow crawl through the editing process of Reroll, whenever I can find the will to edit, merging together chapters and formating it all as well.
Thanks for all the comments, feedback and reviews! If you're enjoying my work and want to help keep the lights on, please consider checking out my Patreon!
https://www.elbowsnapper.com/
https://www.patreon.com/Elbowsnapper
Update Schedule
Originals
Contention - Biweekly, Monday & Friday.
Ameliorate(NSFW) - Monthly, 30th.
Fanfiction
Just Deserts - Monthly, 30th.
Seeking Direction - Monthly, 30th.
Day 3.0
Three days without clothing had the curious effect of having the discomfort fade into the background of his mind. It was still inconvenient as hell, though, and waking up in the dirt would be far less annoying if he had something between him and the ground.
August yawned, pulling himself up into a sitting position and rubbing at his face. The air was crisp, and the world quiet, almost hauntingly so. There were no sounds of people moving about or the distant rumblings of vehicles.
The only real sound was that of Ladybug rolling around by the gate and attempting to scratch its back against the ground.
"Morning," August said, patting the ground beside him. "No trouble?"
Ladybug trilled, abandoning its attempt to scratch its elusive itch, and tromped on over. August reached out and scratched around the fur on its back. If there had been trouble, the little monster had no way to communicate it, but he was alive, so that had to count for something.
August squeezed his hands together and found to his complete surprise that the aching was entirely gone. He squinted at his arms in an attempt to see the small cuts that littered his skin, but there was nothing more than some rough lines, already scarred over.
"How come it healed already?" August said, frowning.
The health regeneration boost shouldn't have kicked in until he'd woken up—he realised what had happened. He'd spent the night waking up for moments and turning over half a hundred times in an attempt to get comfortable on the ground. At least one, if not all of those moments where he'd woken up must have started the two-hour duration.
August scratched at his cheek, it was an unexpected side effect, but it wasn't like he couldn't use the extra healing bonus. Now that he was aware that it worked that way, he could schedule naps during the day to keep away any injuries. Then again, wasting the daylight sleeping seemed like a bad idea all around.
The sun hadn't fully risen yet, so the light was still quite low but just enough so that he could see the lake. The distance robbed most of the details, and the low light certainly didn't help, but when eyes landed on a large boulder on the opposite shore, he was absolutely certain it hadn't been there yesterday.
[Analysis].
Mitikos
Male
Level 21
Tame Progress – 0/210
Tame Resistance – 112
Trait – Pyrrhic
"Where did it come from?" August said, biting down on his lip.
It would need to circle around the entire lake to get over here, and that would take hours—he'd see it coming with plenty of time to move in advance. A giant patterned boulder shuffling along the lakeside wasn't exactly stealthy. If it needed water to survive, then it appearing near the lake made sense.
"Fuck," August muttered, not moving from his position.
Had it come down from the top of the crater while he'd been sleeping? Were there more of them beyond the lip? If he got up and started moving around, it was sure to see him, if it hadn't already. Depending on when exactly it had come down, it might have seen the campfire.
It looked like a rock, and the colour seemed to be grey, with a hint of cobalt through in for good measure. He could almost picture himself trying to stab the thing with his spear and having it snap in two. He couldn't remain sitting still all day for fear of alerting it; he had a hole to finish digging and a basic standard of living to acquire.
[Pyrrhic] wasn't a word he was too familiar with either, other than the phrase 'Pyrrhic Victory'. Usually, that meant that you won the conflict, but the cost was so high that it wasn't worth it in the end—not exactly something that sounded like it would be friendly as Ladybug had been.
August ran over his options quickly before settling on the tried and true method of running away if it started coming towards his camp. He pushed himself to his feet and stepped over the small gate he'd made, and moved towards the pit.
Ladybug hopped the gate like it wasn't even there before waddling after him. Even when he took out his [Wooden Shovel] and hovered by the pit, the boulder didn't move. After a few minutes of nothing, he hopped down into the hole and started digging.
The end of the stake was starting to look pretty busted up, the dirt growing harder and transforming to clay the lower he went. The lumps of clay he dug out all went into his [Inventory], to be used in the future—for what, he wasn't sure yet.
In a moment of curiosity, he toggled [Locate Object] on to see if it picked up on anything inside the soil and was surprised to find that the clay deposits showed up beneath him. Most of them stretched far further than the range of the skill but just knowing where it was allowed him to better dig the area up.
Breaking the clay apart was more taxing than the softer soil, and he was soon forced to take another break. If he hadn't been able to inventory the soil, he would have been hard-pressed to keep tossing the dirt out. The summon pit was almost a meter and a half long, and when he stood inside it, it came up too just above his chest.
Ladybug had given up on helping him dig, her own efforts better served outside of the hole, watching for anything coming to eat them.
Getting out of the damn hole became harder the deeper it got, reminding him greatly of the pit he'd woken up in when he first arrived. Which was kind of the point, in the end, provided he didn't summon an [Otrogon] as big as the one he'd seen on the first day, he'd be in a good position to deal with whatever it was.
The [Mitikos] that had appeared across the lake still had moved from its spot, its life as a boulder as authentic as he could imagine. By the time the pit was entirely over his head August was considering whether an extra foot would do much to help. August climbed out and retrieved his spear to test the range and found he could easily attack anything inside the hole from a relatively safe distance.
It needed something over the top to stop anything from just climbing out, and he set his mind to figuring out how to best go about that. He began removing the younger fallen trees and thicker branches from his Inventory before dragging them over to lay across the hole. It took eight of them to cover it with enough space in between that he could reach a hand inside.
Basic Pit Blueprint Unlocked
"Nice," August noised, as the skill point icon flickered to life in his vision.
He should have probably dug out a trench bisecting the middle of the pit floor, so any rain had someplace to go other than just flooding the pit. Other than some small issues, it was pretty serviceable, provided he was unlucky enough to summon something bigger than the pit itself.
August slipped through the [Menu] and found what he was searching for.
Skill Points: 1
63/500 EXP
That would be [100 EXP] for the [Basic Stonewall Blueprint Unlocked], [Basic Gate Blueprint Unlocked], and [Basic Pit Blueprint Unlocked], respectively, bringing his [EXP] from [75/500] to [475/500]. But he couldn't figure out what had given him the leftover [88 EXP], which was an amount clearly unrelated to blueprints. Did he earn some amount of [EXP] by doing things? Surviving another day? Identifying new creatures? Collecting things? Unlocking [Roles]?
"I guess I'll figure it out eventually," August sighed, depositing the point in the same skill he had the first time.
Replenishment I – 2/5
20% increased health regeneration for two hours after sleeping.
The first of many Voithos will soon be making an appearance(Chapter 24) and i've included artwork so you have some idea what he looks like.
The Systematic Soul Sorting Audiobook has been accepted and is in the process of being distributed. Should be up on a bunch of different places within the month; Audible, Apple, Spotify, Scribd, and plenty others. I'm also continuing my slow crawl through the editing process of Reroll, whenever I can find the will to edit, merging together chapters and formating it all as well.
Thanks for all the comments, feedback and reviews! If you're enjoying my work and want to help keep the lights on, please consider checking out my Patreon!
https://www.elbowsnapper.com/
https://www.patreon.com/Elbowsnapper
Update Schedule
Originals
Contention - Biweekly, Monday & Friday.
Ameliorate(NSFW) - Monthly, 30th.
Fanfiction
Just Deserts - Monthly, 30th.
Seeking Direction - Monthly, 30th.
