Gar looked around at his shelter then at the sky he really wanted to get that finished as soon as possible but he had always been one that if he was going to do a job he would do it properly. So having made up his mind, Gar went to where he had left the hide, he didn’t have the first idea how to prepare the hide and turn it to leather, but he figured he should try his best. He carved a couple more pegs plus the ones he used when skinning and used them to peg the hide down to the ground stretched out, then using the blade of his knife he started scrapping away anything left on the skin, fat, meat, membrane he scraped off. When he was done he unpegged the hide, it now had a few more holes and was quite a mess with blood and oils so Gar figured he would wash it in the river next. Gar was happy with this because with a trip to the river he could also get what he needed for his shelter, mud, two birds with one stone. There were just a few things to do before he was ready to go. First he added a bit more wood to the fire to keep it going then he checked his pot and gave it a stir, it was bubbling away nicely. The next and last task would take a bit longer he needed to make a handle for the shovel, fortunately in his pile of wood Gar was able to find a stick just the right size once he had removed the bark with his knife, he was then able to cut a slot in the end of the stick before sliding it in to the shovel head and tapping a little wooden wedge into the cut slot, holding the head in place. With a functional even if not perfect shovel ready he got his spear and the sled put the hide in his backpack and slung it onto his back.

  Gar headed to the river, it took a bit of walking up stream to find a good spot but he eventually found some clay mud. Before he got dirty digging in the mud he got into the river up to his knees and started washing the hide, making sure to really scrub it clean before putting it back in his bag. Starting shovelling mud he piled it on his sled, it was a messy sticky process, fortunately it didn’t take too long before it was piled high on the sled, so dragging the sled he proceeded back to base retracing his steps along the river bank then down the same path he always took, knowing it would be quicker to just head in a straight line Gar was tempted in the end though he didn’t the risk of coming across something unexpected or dangerous was too much for him so he stuck to his known route.

  Gar was unsure how to procced once he returned to the bottom of his ladder, should he dump the mud here and return for more from the river or should he carry this mud up before going back for more from the river. Deciding it would break it up more to take the mud up each time, Gar went up the ladder, laid out the hide in the sun to dry out, tipped what was left of the water in his bucket into the other saucepan, and carried the bucket down, filled it up with mud, brought it up and dumped it on the outside of his shelter. That is how Gar spent the rest of his day; collecting mud from the river bank, hauling it back, bucketing it up the cliff, and spreading it on his shelter. He had ended up using his hands to spread it out evenly so by the time he was ready to call it quits for the day he was covered in mud. He was happy with his progress though he had nearly two thirds of his shelter covered in mud and his hauling skill had levelled up during the day. He headed back to the river one more time to wash up and to clean his bucket; in fact spending longer to make sure his bucket was clean than he did himself, then using it to bring some fresh water back with him. It was now time to eat his pot that had been bubbling away all day. It was not good but it was filling and Gar had had a long day of hard work and would have eaten anything, nothing was wasted. He had never been a fan of organs, they tasted to irony for his pallet but this was worse the strong taste had permeated all of it the liquid and the axen pods, everything had just gone kind of mushy so he couldn’t really tell what it was he was eating but he forced himself to finish it then drinking all the liquid. The worst part had been when he had bitten down on an eye and it popped in his mouth, he wasn’t sure what happened to the other eye but he counted that as a blessing. He chucked the bones from the pot in the pile with the rest, and then he went straight to bed tired from his days work and just wanting to forget his horrible dinner.

  The next morning Gar was up with the sun again, he still had no appetite after last night so skipped any kind of breakfast and got on with his chores first he checked on his drying meat, it seemed to be doing okay but figured he would let it dry today as well. Then it was off to get water and check the traps, there was no surprises that day so Gar had the traps sorted and was back with the water in short order. Moving the water to the saucepans Gar set off to finish collecting the mud he needed. It was nearly mid-day by the time Gar had his shelter covered in mud, to finish it off he laid the sheets of moss and grass he had put to one side, on top of the shelter, hoping that when it took root it would keep the mud in place even in heavy rain. Gar sat by his fire pit, it was unlit but he had gotten used to sitting around it. He was unsure what to do next he had been keeping himself so busy with his shelter for the last few days so once it was done he wasn’t really sure what he should do next. Since he had got here his goal had been survival; shelter, water, food. His shelter was now complete, the river supplied abundant water and this place seemed to be teaming with life he could eat, both plants and animals. Gar knew he needed to keep himself busy with a goal in mind, or the fear would overtake him or worse the recklessness would and he would get himself killed. So he thought about what he wanted, he had wanted adventure and the chance to explore that was why he said yes to coming here but it hadn’t been anything like he expected. Now all he wanted was peace and safety, so he figured his best bet for that was to find civilization. Okay, so that was his long term goal but that didn’t really help with what he was going to do next, he needed to break it down into steps. In the medium term he needed to get out of this hole he couldn’t go anywhere or find anyone while stuck here. He also needed to be prepared to travel when he did because he had no idea what he would find when he got out. With that in mind Gar could think of three things he needed to do, one explore this hole he had been here for over a week and he had barely seen any of it, it was large and there may be a simple way out he was just yet to see, two he needed to be stronger he needed to train and improve his stats and skills, three he needed knowledge, information was key, he needed to inspect and observe more things, he needed to explore his mana vision and learn all he could. So those where his goals, those where what he would get on with. It wasn’t much of a plan but it was the best he could come up with, so it would have to do.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Mind made up, Gar was getting a bit hungry so ate some of his supply of axen nuts and looked over his status

  Race: Gargoyle

  Name: Gar

  Level: 2

  Experience to next level 113/150

  Health: 142/142

  Stamina: 149/149

  Mana: 62/62

  Constitution: 12        Endurance: 11

  Strength: 14          Agility: 6

  Dexterity: 6          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 2: learning the basics of getting fire going, makes the process easier


  
• Inspect, level 2: 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 4: 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 2: 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 3: Can haul more, faster and easier as you level it up. Hauling to pull or drag with effort or force


  
• Cooking, level 2: 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.


  
• Felling, level 1: See that tree standing there, cut it down, well done now you are felling.


  
• Throwing, level 1: Use your body and your physical strength to propel an object through the air, throwing things.


  
• Butchery, level 2: The art of taking apart a corpse and breaking it down into useful parts.


  

  Free skill points: 1

  It was a long list of skills now but none where above level 4 and only one was at that. Also Gar was undecided on if he should use his free skill and attribute point. He had figured out he could gain more physical attribute points through related physical effort and was guessing from that he could raise his mental stats by mental efforts, but what about the more esoteric stats like charisma and luck, was there some way to train them if not should he put his points in them if it was the only way to gain them or maybe they should go into stats that would be immediately helpful in survival, but what stat was that he was in no immediate danger so would it be better to increase intelligence maybe help him think up a solution or maybe more strength that would always be useful. It all came back to one thing a lack of information.