“New stats added to status: + 1 Intelligence, + 1 perception”

  Was the message that greeted Gar as he woke up, he was happy he had proven his theory. He could improve his mental stats through training, as long as it was of the appropriate sort, and as a bonus he had also improved his perception. Which he hadn’t expected although it made some sense, he had spent a lot of time focusing on watching mana flows using all his perception based skills. The day started in his new routine; he checked his snares, nothing new, collected some berry’s nuts and pods, collected water he was getting quite quick and smooth with these daily tasks. He then got the fire going to keep smoking the hide and decided to try some of his dried meat for breakfast, the drying seemed to have worked the meat was tough but did not appear to be rotten, the taste was something edible but not enjoyable he helped improve the flavour by eating it with some pine needle tea.

  Breakfast finished and tea in hand Gar plucked an old charcoal, from the edge of the fire pit. Taking it to the cliff wall he found an area of relatively flat rock and started drawing, it was a crude map depicting; his little platform, the cliff walls leading away from it on either side, plus his path to the river and where the river disappeared into the cave in the cliff, he also marked the area covered in caves that was not far from the river end. This was his map and from then on he would start to add to it as he explored, he knew about more areas of this cenote on the other side of the river but he wasn’t certain of their position relative to where he was so preferring to keep his map simple and correct only expand it out as he explores rather than adding some areas incorrectly or confusingly. In thinking about exploring, an area that he needed to explore did come to mind, it was not something he wanted to do but with his survival somewhat stable he had no real excuse not to and it was foolish to leave a potential danger unchecked. That was the small cave opening he had found on his platform.

  Putting a little mark on his map to indicate the cave he chucked the charcoal back in the fire, grabbed his spear carried it over to the pile of rocks he had used to block the small entrance. He got as close to the cliff wall as he could then stopped, listened. He couldn’t hear anything but that did not calm his nerves, laying his spear next to himself within easy reach he started to move away the rocks that had been piled to block the entrance. He didn’t move them far and he frequently stopped to listen, hand on spear, for any sounds coming from inside. It was all still quiet. As soon as he had moved enough stones to show a portion of the opening he jumped back, half expecting something to dart out at him. No such thing happened. He spent a while just watching the opening he had revelled, before getting closer and peering into the cave. His dark vision made it possible to see but his bad angle and reluctance to put his face to near the opening meant he didn’t see much, but with no indication of threats Gar continued clearing the entrance stopping regally; to look and listen.

  Eventually he got the entrance clear; he crept continuously up to it. Still not seeing or hearing any threats Gar stuck his head inside. There was a short tunnel that curved up so he couldn’t see far it opened up a little once past the entrance but still not enough that Gar could stand. Backing out Gar went and grabbed a knife which he tucked into the waistband, of his rather tatty, trousers. He wasn’t confident in the usefulness of his spear in that tight space so he’d wanted another option to hand. Back to the cave entrance, he went down on his hands and knees, he squeezed himself in, moving slowly and carefully to avoid making too much noise. As he crawled forward shuffling his spear with him, the cave floor was slopping upwards but the roof wasn’t changing so it was getting narrower his back starting to rub against the celling. Gar was starting to feel claustrophobic he hadn’t gone ten meters and he was soon going to have to crawl on his stomach if it got any lower. What would he do if something attacked him then that was no position to fight from? Pushing forward slowly and as quietly as he could, forcing himself to stop thinking about what could happen and paying attention to what was happening.

  The tunnel suddenly opens out in front of him. He was now in a cavern large enough that his dark vision couldn’t see across it or even to the ceiling. What he could see were large stalagmites and stalactites ranged around the room many of the stalactites dripping water into puddles on the floor. Despite the lack of light this cavern was not desolate of life; there was moss, liken and fungus growing in patches in every direction he looked. There was also large shapes moving around just outside the clear area of site afforded by his dark vision, there even appeared to be some of these moving shapes on the walls. Gar backed up a bit until he was in the tunnel again and out of site of the cavern, those things had been too big to fit down this tunnel whatever they were, so they shouldn’t be a problem but he felt he still needed to know more about them to be safe. He just wanted to run and hide, block off the entrance again and be safe. He knew however that he couldn’t, it would just be a false sense of security, the only thing he could do to be truly safe was to go back in. He needed more information and he could only do that by going back.

  Steeling himself that is what he did. Gar crawled back in only bringing his spear, moving slowly to minimise any noise he might be making, despite that all too soon he had reached the cavern again. Once there he lay down on his front, spear just to his side so it wasn’t under him but still in easy reach. Once settled he waited just watching the cave, he wanted to crawl out and explore the cavern but he knew there were things moving in there, large things. He felt going out was just to reckless, he just laid there allowing his dark vision to show him the area around him, and he waited patiently. He could feel the cool ground under him and feel the stone around him but it didn’t bother him he wasn’t uncomfortable he didn’t twitch or fidget he just laid there his breathing calm, focusing on the movement he could make out just outside his dark visions range. After an unknown amount of time something started to enter his vision, it was moving next to the wall on Gar’s left near a large patch of something growing, he couldn’t tell exactly what at this distance. The creature was moving slowly for its size and it was only when it had completely made its way into the area of his dark vision that Gar could tell what it was. It was a giant snail and not like the giant snails you can get on earth that might be as big as your foot, the top of this snails shell would reach Gars shoulder and it was at least twice that in length. Size was not the only difference between this snail and the ones on earth, it had a similar coloured shell as garden snails but the body was a dark orange. Gar activated observe and the creature was marked

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  “Cave snail level 5”

  It was a cave snail, that wasn’t too bad snails where slow, it would be of minimal threat to Gar. Gar continued to watch from his little tunnel feeling a bit safer, between the snail’s slow speed and its large size not fitting in his tunnel, it meant it wasn’t a threat to him. He still needed more information so he stayed and watched the snail as it went up and down over the patch of fungus where it was, with observe on he could see as the fungus on the floor wilted as the snail went over it, it wasn’t the weight of the snail, it was its slime trail Gar watched as behind the snail all the fungus the snail had passed over was melting into a runny mush, the snail then went back across its trail bending its head and eating the runny mush it had made. Gar hoped this meant it was a herbivore and wouldn’t be looking to attack him, Gar had no interest in attacking it as the orange colour and the slime made him sure it was poisonous so he couldn’t eat it, so not being edible he saw no reason to take the risk of attacking it. He spent some more time watching the snail finish its meal then slowly made its way out of his area of vision, he kept watching, hours went by and in all that time he only saw one more cave snail as it briefly came into his area of vision to go around a stalagmite. Deciding to call it time Gar slowly crawled backwards out of the tunnel, slightly impressed with how freely his body moved even after laying perfectly still on the cold hard ground for so long.

  It was much later in the day than Gar had realised when he exited the cave, with how late it was getting being the perfect excuse not to try to explore more Gar started re-covering the entrance to the cave with stones, he knew none of those snails would be fitting down the tunnel to come out this entrance but he had not explored enough to be confident there was nothing else in there that could. Once the cave was again sealed with stones Gar nipped over to his map and marked the tunnel and the opening of the cavern on it. It wasn’t much added but it made Gar smile to be able to add even that little bit, to know just a bit more of this new world. It was too early to be going to bed so Gar decided it was time to get back to another task he had been neglecting.

  Putting Handles on his tools, the next tool he was going to do would be his pickaxe; he picked a suitable piece of wood from his pile and brought it with him to the fire pit. It was then that he realised that he had forgotten about his badger hide, the fire had gone out hours ago and the hide was hanging there in all its tattered glory, Gar realised it was time to accept defeat with that one. He had no idea what he was doing with it, it smelt and was full of holes; he just hated the idea of wasting anything. Knowing it was a lost cause without the knowledge on what to do with it, Gar was not going to waste any more time on it, he pulled it down from where it hung, walked to his waste disposal area, and chucked the ragged hide off the cliff. Returning and sitting by the fire pit he took the log he had chosen, and with axe, saw and chisel started shaping it into a usable pickaxe handle. He took it slow, working carefully bringing the piece of wood down to size; he was getting more comfortable with the tools now after having used them a few times he progressed well in the couple of hours before dark. When the light was gone he stopped with the handle and it was time for dinner, having spent most of the day just laying still and not moving Gar was not interested in an early night so was going to try some cooking. He built himself a nice campfire before setting a pan full of water over it letting it come up to a boil, scooping up a cup full of boiling water he dropped in some pine needles. Gar was starting to really enjoy his pine needle teas they were a nice and relaxing thing, into the boiling water still in the pan he dropped a couple of the dried badger meat pieces in the hopes they would rehydrate and be a bit easier to eat. He then sat and watched stirring the pan and regularly pulling up the pieces of meat to check on them. When it felt right Gar pulled out the strips of meat onto his clean flat rock

  “Cooking levelled up cooking level 3”

  Gar hoped that was a good sign and that the food would taste better because of it or at least be easier to eat than the dry stuff he had tried that morning. It certainly was easier to eat but the flavour still left much to be desired, what could he expect his cooking skill was only level 3 and it was just boiled meat no seasonings or sauces. For as bad as it tasted Gar still enjoyed the meal, sipping his tea and a few thorn berries after the meat to finish it.

  With a belly full but still not tired due to his day of relative inactivity Gar laid back and just stared up into the night sky. It was a sight he had not expected, he thought he would see stars but the numbers of them he could see was immense, he had never seen so many even when he had gone camping on earth the campsite and other people around had led to some light pollution but here he was utterly alone; his fire had burned down to coals, no lights anywhere ruining his view of the night sky and he was seeing just how vast it was. On a whim Gar activated mana sight, then he just stared the sight before him was awesome, not the modern watered down use of awesome but truly awe inspiring, it was like watching the aurora borealis with shifting lights in a multitude of colours and shades all while still being able to see the countless stars and the vastness of space. That night Gar fell asleep watching the sky, he was too entranced to care about his comfort or shelter.