“Traps levelled up traps level 3”
Once he was happy with the snares he moved on continuing down his route to the river it wasn’t too far and fairly easy to follow the sound of water, he was a little over half way there when he noticed a fallen tree off to his right. Checking it out he diverted and had a look it was a relatively young tree the trunk about as thick as his thigh and maybe three meters long, not knowing much about wood and not having tools to fell a tree anyway Gar figured this will work to make some handles for his tools. So he starts breaking of all the branches that he can and piling them up, this greatly reduced the weight even the couple of branches too thick to snap off got broken at the point they are thin enough to do so . Squatting down he took hold of the trunk and lifts at the base of the tree, the tree rises and Gar starts to move. It’s a slog but the tree moves with him, he has to constantly stop and twist the trunk as broken branch stumps catch in the undergrowth but he makes progress slowly and surely back towards his ladder as the tree bumps along.
“Hauling levelled up Hauling level 2”
Dumping the tree at the base of the cliff he returns to where he found it and collects the broken off branches, bringing them back and stacking them in a pile next to the trunk, it would hopefully be enough wood for now. A bit thirsty from the work he climbs up and grabs a drink it’s a bit warm having sat in the sun but it quenches his thirst. He unloads the sack of nuts from his bag before he sets off again, with some wood sorted Gar is after foraging up some more food and anything else useful. Sticking to his original plan Gar restarted down his path to the river, once there he started along the edge of the tree line looking for animal tracks and routes as well as anything else that might be useful.
Gar almost missed the obvious right in front of his face when he was looking at a hole in the bottom of a bush trying to determine if it was made by an animal regally running through. Only upon stepping back and taking a wider view did he notice the bush and several others around it had large purple berries, they looked similar to a blackberry, not bothering with the hole any more Gar pulled out a sack from his bag and started filling it with berries. The bush was spiky but Gar was careful and only got poked a few times, he spread out his gathering not taking too much from any one bush. With a good number of berries gathered the sack went back in his bag, he continued along the tree line near the river and was able to find several points he suspected where small animal trails to the water so he set snares on them where he could. Not wanting to go too far Gar turned around and went back to his base.
At the base he took a number of trips up and down to bring all the sticks he had gathered up the ladder until only the trunk was left, it was too big as it was to get up to the base so he had grabbed his bigger saw when he was up the top last and set to cutting it in half. The tree was awkward and slow to cut but eventually Gar was able to snap the last of it, he then attached a rope to each half and hauled them up one at a time.
Gar was hoping the things he had gathered where edible but he had no way of knowing. So he was going to have to take a risk, even if he was taking a risk though he would make it as safe as he could. So that meant taking it slow and careful. deciding to go with the berries first, for no reason other than that was the sack closer to him, he took out a handful of berries, found the ripest looking one he then inspected it in every way he could including with observe and mana sight. It was a bobbly purple berry about the size of a grape, there were no signs of mould or other blemishes on this berry, and the skin was shiny and clean. Mana sight let him see a concentration of mana packed tightly in each bobble, he hoped that was a good thing but really had no idea. After a thorough inspection and finding nothing noticeably wrong he rubbed the berry into the back of his wrist making sure to squeeze it to get some juice and pulp from the inside on there, after this he poured some water over his hands to clean them leaving the bit of mess on his wrist.
Then wanting to wait for any reaction Gar went over to his pile of wood, it was time to start sorting out some handles for his tools, starting with the axe. The handle for the axe needed to be strong so he decided to use the trunk. Bracing the log between the ground and his body he held the axe head length wise against the log, then using a thick stick as a mallet drove the head into the wood starting a split, then placing a metal wedge into the split further along and driving it in to spread the split, repeating the process until the log was pretty neatly split in half. He took one of the half’s and set it next to his fire pit. Figuring it had been long enough he sat down and looked at his wrist where he had rubbed in the berry, there didn’t seem to be any sign of a reaction which seemed like a good thing but was not enough to convince him it was safe yet. Next he took another berry, again examined it and it seemed just as good as the last but this time rubbed it against his lips making sure none went into his mouth, he wanted to test it on more sensitive skin and that was his best idea, then it was back to waiting,
He got on with the axe handle while he waited, he started by marking out a rough shape on the split log with a piece of charcoal from the fire pit, then using the saw he removed the bulk excess from the piece, dropping the excess into the fire pit for later as it came off. Once he couldn’t remove any more with the saw he started refining the shape with a knife and the chisels and his stick mallet. It took a while of trying to find a good positon for this carving but he ended up with his back against the cenote wall and the wood between his legs with the other end of it braced against a large stone which he had found for the job. It was rough work and he got several small cuts while doing it but nothing serious. He had whittled it down to the rough shape he had marked off with the charcoal it just needed rounding off, but it had been several hours so it was back to testing the berry. He had gotten no reaction from putting the berry to his lips but the next step was upping the danger of it, he prepared a cup of water before taking another berry, slightly squishing it and then placing it in his mouth. He rolled it around in there for at least thirty seconds all the time making sure not to swallow. He spat it out then rinsed his mouth with the water before spitting that out too, then it was back to waiting for some kind of reaction.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
He returned to finish the shaping of his axe handle. The general shape had been completed, and the files had been used to smooth it out and take out the knife marks. All that was left was to fit the head, but before that it was back to testing the berries again, they had caused no issues so far. Picking up a berry he took the smallest bite of it that he could and swallow it. Back to the axe, slowly wood was carved from the top of the handle until the axe head would slide on with a tight fit. He then cut a slit into the top of the handle and a wedge out of another piece of wood. The head was pushed onto the handle and the wedge driven into the slot on the top of the axe handle to fix it all in place, the top and excess from the edge was then cut off flat.
“New skill acquired Wood working level 1”
Gar now had a new usable axe, not perfect and far from pretty but a usable first try. He glanced over the axe with observe and could see several areas he could smooth off to improve it but he would leave it for now inspecting it he was able to see its information
Wood Axe
A basic tool for cutting wood
Attack: 5-10
Use: Wood cutting
Value:????
Quality: Poor
Rarity: Frequent
Durability: 30/30
It wasn’t bad, the quality was a bit disappointing but he supposed he couldn’t really expect more for his first attempt. With that done Gar reviewed himself, before the next step in his berry tests, he felt fine no upset stomach, no pain, his skin looked normal, well the same as it had since he got here anyway. He could move all his fingers and toes fine, no difficulty breathing so it appeared everything was good so far. Just to be sure he checked his status
Race: Gargoyle
Name: Gar
Level: 2
Experience to next level 99/150
Health: 140/140
Stamina: 132/132
Mana: 62/62
Constitution: 12 Endurance: 10
Strength: 14 Agility: 5
Dexterity: 5 Willpower: 8
Wisdom: 6 Intelligence: 6
Charisma: 3 Perception: 8
Luck: 5
Free attribute points: 3
Abilities
Racial
- Grotesque: The Grotesque of a gargoyle is its strength, add monster parts to you to truly strike fear into others
- Dark vision: As a creature of the dark born to stand guard in the night you have excellent vision in the dark
Personal
- Mana sight: Able to see the mana flow in the world
Skills
- Observe, level 3: Allows the user to see details of the world around them
- Fire starting, level 1: learning the basics of getting fire going, makes the processed easier
- Inspect, level 1: allows a closer inspection of many things to see more information about them, dependant on other skills and knowledge
- Climb, level 2: Improves ones climbing ability’s reach for higher heights and you might even get there.
- Traps, level 3: Improves your skill with traps whether they be for prey or enemies.
- Basic spear, level 1: The skill of knowing which end of a spear is which, the pointy end goes in the other guy
- Knot work, level 1: Knowing the difference between a clove hitch and a sheepshank, joining things with some rope
- Swimming, level 1: Improves as you swim as you improve how you swim. An improvement to your swimming
- Hauling, level 2: Can haul more faster and easier as you level it up. Hauling to pull or drag with effort or force
- Cooking, level 1: Learn the culinary arts become one of the greats, or not just have good food.
- Woodworking, level 1: How to use a bit of wood to do many things. Well some things for now.
Free skill points: 1
His skill list was growing but they were still disappointingly low level, he wanted to spend some time working on them. There was nothing in his status stopping him though, so he took the final step in his berry testing and ate a whole one, it was sweet a bit tart but not overly so, not a bad flavour over all. If this didn’t cause any problems he would enjoy eating them and they would be a good source of food while they were still growing. He wanted to move onto the nuts but knew that he needed to wait and make sure he didn’t have any reaction from the berries rather than muddling the results by adding another variable. Unsure what else to do Gar took this moment to review and to plan what to do next. He had a water supply it was a bit further away than he would like at several hundred meters away, but that was probably safer and he was just used to the convenience of a tap. For food he was pretty confident about the berries now and hopefully the nuts and pods would be good, he had snares set up at several locations which would hopefully catch him something. He could always cross the river for some more conrex now he knew how to locate them they were relatively easy hunting. He was sure there were more things to find he could eat, so for now it wasn’t a problem. Shelter; he had been sleeping under the stars so far but he couldn’t always guarantee pleasant weather he needed to get somewhere warm and dry, with his relatively safe location the only option was to make something.