“New stats added to status: +1 dexterity, +1 endurance”

  No messages about kills so his traps probably hadn’t caught anything but he figured he should still check them, he gathered up his bag, spear and bucket and went off. Gar suddenly went stiff and crouched down when the axen tree came into view, the area was disturbed, with furrows in the ground and scratch marks in the trees. Slowly and carefully Gar moved closer, activating observe as he did so. Words started appearing hovering in the air everywhere “Axen pod”, “Axen nut” it appeared they were all now labelled and marked, he didn’t know why they had appeared but they were too much and he just wanted them to go away. No sooner had he thought that then all the labels hovering in the air disappeared, observe was still active, but the labels were gone, with a thought they were back, then gone again. Useful Gar thought but left them off for now he didn’t want the distraction as he looked at scene. Most of the damage appeared to be around where he had left the squirrel. There was no sign of that squirrel or even the snare set over it, looking for the branch the snare had been attached to he could see that had been broken off. Gar looked around to see if he could make sense of the scratches and furrows, he quickly realised had no idea; having never done any tracking or hunting he didn’t know what would make those kinds of marks. Observe did let him spot a number of small splatters of a green liquid on the ground most where the missing snare should be. Could it be some sort of blood, but what has green blood? Did Gar want to try and find whatever had done this? It was a meat eater having taken or eaten the squirrel; it was large enough to get caught in one of his larger snares and strong enough to snap the rather thick looking branch it had been attached to. Thinking all that Gar answered the important question easily, no, he did not want anything to do with this thing if he didn’t have to.

  Gar moved quickly through checking the rest of the snares in the area and resetting any that had been disturbed, it was a rushed job but he didn’t want to be hanging around. Gar then moved onto the river to check the rest of his snares, moving more cautiously this time as he knew there was a predator about, after making sure the rest of the snares where in order, he pulled out a sack and started collecting thorn berry’s, He collected fewer than previous not wanting to collect to many and them to start rotting he only took those that where ripest, also while there he filled up his bucket with water from the river before heading back to base.

  With morning chores done Gar decided it was time for some breakfast, which reminded him, he was having no side effects from the axen pod he had eaten so taking this opportunity to test something he theorised he inspected another Axen pod

  Axen pod

  A pod from the axen tree in which several nuts develop

  Uses: edible, ingredient

  Value: ????

  Quality: Good

  Rarity: Occasional

  Durability: 7/8

  “Inspect levelled up Inspect level 2”

  Inspect had levelled up that was great news, but more importantly the uses section had changed it was no longer question marks but now said edible and ingredients, was this because he had taken the time to test it or was it just because he had eaten it, he should of inspected for changes after each test. He would do that for the axen nuts. The pods where defiantly more filling than the berry’s even if they were a bit tough and fibrous with an okay but not great taste they would help add variety to his diet. Perhaps if he cooked them they would be better eating he would try it sometime, he was unwilling to spend that much time that morning so he ate several axen pods and thorn berries raw for breakfast.

  Then it was back to working on a shelter, he still had a large amount of the trunk to cut into sections but the sections he had cut the day before should be enough for a basic shelter. He started by trying to roll them, they were still too heavy so he split them. Swinging the axe into the log lengthwise to start a split then using the back side of the axe to hammer a wedge into the split to widen and lengthen it before adding another wedge to take the split further repeating all the way down until the log was split in half. Gar spent the morning splitting the cut sections, he stopped for a drink and some lunch, in which he finished off the berry’s he had gotten that morning. After some lunch it was back to work, he had some prepared materials but they needed putting in place, the split log sections were finally light enough that they could be moved by picking up one end at a time and shifting it a bit, like that Gar was able to get the first section where he wanted it, at about the middle of his platform against the cliff wall, he then lifted the log up and over its end so it fell as to form the slope of a triangle with the cliff wall and the floor. Once he had a total of ten pieces of split log lined up like that, flat side down tight up next to each other, he then braced the bottom of them with the top of the tree trunk, the ten meter section about as thick as his leg would work well to stop them slipping and to make sure it wouldn’t roll away he stacked a number of large rocks behind it. He now had a good start of a shelter it would keep some rain off only the small gaps between logs being an issue.

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  Gar got the shovel head from his pile of stuff and crawled into his half-finished shelter, using the shovel head he scraped the ground clean lifting the moss and grass in large sheets which he placed carefully outside, a bit more work and he was down to bare rock with the dirt piled all in the opening at one end. The next job was to gather a number of straight sticks all roughly the same thickness, a job made simple by sorting through the pile of cut off branches. He ended up with several dozen straight sticks as thick as his arm and four long sticks that where only about half as thick. One of the thinner sticks was set into the pile of dirt at the end of the shelter, near the cliff wall, the other set into the dirt near where the split logs rest against the ground, then a thicker sticks was laid along the ground up against the two upright sticks then the other two thinner sticks were pushed into the ground opposite their counterparts trapping the thicker stick in place, the rest of the thicker sticks were then slotted down on top of the first building up an end wall for the shelter, one of the shorter bits of rope was then unwound to get some cords with which Gar secured it all together.

  “Knot working levelled up Knot working level 2”

  The next job was going to be messy and Gar didn’t think he would get it done that day even if he had started right then, so he decided to do some small jobs that need doing. The first job was to move the fire pit and build it better. He cleared the ground outside the open end of his shelter using the same technique as inside scrapping off the moss and grass in sheets then shovelling the dirt to the end of his shelter and pressed it tight to help anchor the end wall supports. With the space clear he set out a ring of stones to stop any coals rolling out and built the side that is out towards the forest up into a stone wall to try and reflect the heat and to try and hide the light a bit. The new fire pit was not far from his shelter entrance and close enough that he could warm by the fire while leaning against the cenote wall, all while he had been testing the axen nuts, using the sledge hammer head as a nut cracker, and after each test and then again just before the next test he inspected the nut, nothing had changed so far but it was good to know. Then he set to building two A frames just large enough that once done he could put them either side of the fire with a stick between them to hang one of his pans off. With his new cooking set up done Gar figured it was a good time to try it out so he built a fire in the pit.

  “Fire starting levelled up fire starting level 2”

  Once the fire was going he put some water in a saucepan and set it over the fire to boil. While waiting for it to boil he turned to prepare the food, which would be axen pods, grabbing the sack of them he turned to the flat stone he had been using as a work surface. It was stained red and a bit of a mess where he had used it for butchery. Since he had a bit of time he went searching for a new flat stone, deciding he would keep the old one for butchery, maybe give it a wash though, and have a new one for other things. As he walked along the edge of the cliff wall, where there were a number of large stones scattered about, he came upon a pile of stones and realised it was the ones he had piled up. He knew he couldn’t ignore it forever he would have to check out the cave at some point, but the thought alone made him shudder. Gar pushed it off for another day continuing along the wall until he found a suitable large flat stone. Setting it up next to the fire he sat on the floor and pulled out some pods, using his conrex claw knife he first slit the pod open, removed the nuts putting them back into the sack, then he laid the pods out and cut them into french-fry like slices. Why was he doing that, who knows; wishful thinking that they might taste like French fries if they were the same shape, lack of imagination, simply for something to do? Gar didn’t really know about cooking it just always seemed the thing to cut up vegetables before cooking, by the time that was done the water had been boiling for a little while, so he scooped some out in his mug before dropping the chopped axen pods into the water to let them boil for a while. Figuring he had some time Gar took his mug and wandered over to the pile of branches, he pulled off a handful of pine needles and dropped them in his mug. He knew pine needle tea was a thing so figured he would give it a go.

  Heading back to the fire he had his mug of pine needle tea in one hand and was dragging a large pine branch in the other, the tea was still too hot to drink so was set down and Gar started stripping the pine needles from the branch and putting them into one of his sacks. He sat there stripping pine needles and sipping his tea, it was quite a pleasant taste, while he waited for the pods to cook. It was almost meditative; tea, a simple job to keep the hands busy, and just watching the fire. Gar would snap of a smaller branch strip it of needles, put them in the sack and neatly stack the sticks then repeat. It had been at least ten minutes since the pods went in, so Gar decided it was time to test them picking up one of the smaller sticks he used it to fish out a slice of pod and tasted it, it wasn’t bad still the same taste as the uncooked pod except maybe a little sweeter and a lot easier to chew, softer than before, deciding that would do Gar using a sack as an oven glove removed the pan from over the fire then slowly poured the pod slices and the boiling water onto his work surface stone, the water ran off leaving him with a pile of boiled axen pod slices.

  “Cooking levelled up cooking level 2”

  Gar continued to sit there watching the fire as he stripped pine needles sipping his tea and snacking on the boiled pod. Once the sack was full Gar emptied it onto the floor of his shelter, he repeated this with branch after branch and sack after sack, creating a flooring of pine needles that Gar was hoping; would insulate him from the cold ground, would be cushioning, and would not be damp like the moss he had slept on for the past few days had been. As he had been doing this he had also taken the time to go through the final stages of testing the axen nut.

  Gar had hoped to get one more job done that day but it had taken a lot longer to collect enough pine needles to cover the floor than he had thought it would. It hadn’t been that hard a job though so Gar considered staying up a bit longer to do the job anyway, but going to bed with the sun set and getting up with the sun rise had been working for him so he decided to stick with it. Just a few finishing touches, he laid out one of his sheets of leather on top of the pine needles used his sheet of cloth as a blanket and a refilled sack of pine needles for a pillow and he was ready for bed. Laying down it was the most comfortable Gar had been since he had come to this world.