The Way Ahead

Edwin stood at the frontier, a boundary between the known and the unknown, the civilized and the wild, from the world where your value was determined by your strength and Skills into one where your value was determined by… your strength and skills.

Okay, that’s enough melodrama. Get moving.

He wasn’t even at the treeline yet, just where the road turned to run parallel to the forest a few hundred feet away. The ground between him and the start of the woods was fairly calm, though Edwin couldn’t help but shake the feeling of a warzone, with stumps littered across the open area and shoots of bushes and new tree growth tenaciously trying to claw back their lost territory.

It wasn’t too hazardous to walk through, at least, which Edwin appreciated. He was also quite content with the absence of any witnesses as he literally ventured off the beaten path. It wasn’t that he was doing anything illegal, at least so far as he knew, but he really didn’t want to deal with awkward stares as he traveled into the depths of untamed wilderness, no matter how close it may have been geographically to civilization.

Interestingly, the undergrowth near the edges of the Verdant was actually far thicker than it was than he was used to, when the tree cover started to grow thicker, blocking more prime sunlight… and he’d answered his own question before he’d really asked it. Wasn’t there something similar that happened in really dense rainforests on Earth or whatever? It did mean he kind of wished that he’d bought a machete or something similar, but his stick worked… adequately. Every swing made his tools, tied as they were to the outside of his pack, swing and clatter. It wasn’t quite a hindrance, but it was an annoyance. Still, it was ultimately a minor price to pay as he swatted brambles and creeping vines out of his path.

Though his vision was limited, it seemed to Edwin that if there was flooding in the Verdant itself, it was far more limited than out in the plains. He’d been alongside the river bank the entire time he’d stayed on the road, but now that he was amongst the trees, there was no sign of the excess water, not even the sound of a rushing river. Small creeks here and there didn’t count, not that he had encountered many of those anyway. Maybe the floodplain just didn’t extend into the woods? The river, if not flooding, must have been miles away from him.

Edwin wasn’t sure that he could articulate what exactly he was hoping to find, though the ideal situation would be some sort of small-ish cave, large enough to live in but not so large as to make him paranoid about possible undiscovered roommates. He also realized he should have tried to buy a pickaxe or something, but he could hopefully make whatever he found work without too much in the way of modification. He wasn’t that picky, after all, and between his newly-purchased knife- now he had one for alchemy, for self-defense, and one for everything else, axe, saw, rope, hand drill (Or was it an auger? He couldn’t remember the difference, or was there even one?), and shovel, he should be all set, so long as he kept them in good repair… shoot. He didn’t have a whetstone or anything.

Almanac to self, get a sharpening tool next time I’m in town, whenever that might be.

It was kind of interesting. Last time he’d been out here, Edwin hadn’t really noticed any animal life, which he had chalked up to being the result of animals having Skills. While he had confirmed via Lefi that pretty much anything Identify worked on by default- not counting the effects of Common Knowledge or other similar Skills- did indeed have Skills, Edwin didn’t think any of his own would account for the sudden abundance of birdsong and other small creatures everywhere. At one point, he even caught a glimpse of what looked to be a deer of some sort in the distance, but it had vanished before he’d gotten any sort of good look at it.

Oh hey, was that a chear tree? It was! No fruits, sadly. Cross-referencing the Grimoire yielded no results for what the fruits were really called, which probably meant that they didn’t have any particularly notable alchemical properties, and meant he was still calling them chears. Not that he would really switch to calling them anything else at this point.

Camping was far simpler and much more pleasurable when he had the proper tools. Sure, it had been more than a few years since he’d been a scout, but thanks to Memory, he was able to recall most of his lessons, and with the benefit of hindsight he couldn’t help but cringe a little bit at his hopeless stumbling around when he first landed.

These days, survival was basically easy-mode. Thanks to Survival and Nutrition, he only needed a single meal each day to stay fully functional. Athletics, Walking, and Breathing were all high enough level that, coupled with his increased standard of activity, a full day of hiking across rough terrain barely even winded him. Chopping down a few branches from a dead tree with his new axe got him a crackling fire, and Edwin made an Almanac note to get some canvas or other sturdy fabric next time he went into civilization to make himself a hammock. He wasn’t too uncomfortable, laying against a pile of leaves and ferns at the base of the tree, covered as he was by his cloak, but it could be way better for comparatively little effort.

He triggered his notifications for the past couple of days, scrolling past a handful of Skill offerings- no, he didn’t want Axes, Hiking, Book Smarts (though the name did sound intriguing), but maybe Reading? … Nah. Not worth it. Sure, it might have some interesting evolution, but that could hold true for any of his Skills, let alone what they might evolve into- and to his levels. He’d had a pretty good haul from the last week or so. He was still figuring out which was more satisfying, seeing it all at once or bit by bit, but this was pretty nice.

Level Up!

Skill Points 423→443

Progress to Tier 2: 653/1590

Alchemy Level 51→52

Breathing Level 26→29

Identify Level 40→41

Memory Level 28→31

Nutrition Level 23→24

Outsider’s Almanac Level 78→79

Packing Level 20→24

Polyglot Level 34→36

Seeing Level 27→29

Survival Level 19→21

Walking Level 39→40

Hmm. He really should figure out if he wanted any more Skills. If he were offered something really great or broadly applicable, he might take it. Otherwise, he wanted to focus on getting up to Tier 2. He’d… hmm. He’d raise all of his Skills to at least… seventy or so, then mass-complete a bunch of Paths, then raise the remaining ones up to evolve via his 90-point Paths. Eh, maybe once he passed the universal level 40 mark, he’d complete a 30-point Path as a bit of a reward to himself. He’d miss out a bit on potential Attributes, but it would probably be fine. For now, he’d content himself with finding a good base to call home.

Level Up!

Sleeping Level 27→28

It took a couple of days of not-quite blind wandering (thanks Almanac) through the woods, but Edwin eventually found something which he felt would suit his purposes. It was a small meadow next to a rocky bluff, the ground sloping slightly up to meet the stone, and had a bit of a rocky outcropping some ten feet up, providing a bit of shelter. The real prize, though, was a stream coming from the top of the bluff, the water cascading over the edge in a small waterfall, collecting in a pool, then winding away. With that, he’d have a convenient way to find his shelter again, a source of water, and if he could find a way to harness the energy of the stream, the option to make some simple machines. Edwin may not have been an engineer, but he wasn’t hopeless in the mechanical department, either.

While his initial target had been a cave, Edwin had abandoned his search for a suitable one after finding several, none of which were anywhere close to being dry enough, large enough, or accessible enough for actual habitation. Fiction, it seemed, had lied to him about the quality of homes in woodland caves. In hindsight, he should probably have something with better ventilation anyway.

So, his new plan was to make a log cabin of sorts, by this idyllic woodland pond, and possibly build out from there. He’d need to dry out the wood he would use, yes, but the Grimoire actually had some useful advice in that regard! A genuine formula, with steps and everything, was outlined in the ‘preservation’ section of herbology, regarding how to dry out samples taken while preserving desirable properties. It was vague, sure, but he could probably get a workable version with a little trial and error. A footnote had mentioned a couple of modifications that could be made to make the process work for food, animal parts, and, most crucially, wood.

Even better, Edwin already had a lot of the required ingredients- he did his best to not think about why Niall would have the reagents needed for preserving alchemical materials. The main thing he was missing for the wood variation was ash from the target tree type, but that was easy enough to obtain. By the ratios listed in the book, he had more than enough for several logs, and he’d even have enough left over to dry out firewood.

…

Yeah, no, he was back to thinking about why the serial killer alchemist would have so many preservatives. That was… not a pretty picture. Hey, at least they’d be put to good use. That would require a fair bit of work, though, so he’d need to get started.

Okay, let’s see. Priorities. Shelter, water, and food. Shelter is partially taken care of by the overhang… unless there’s any wind. Yeah, some temporary shelter is a must-have. Water is taken care of by the stream, though I need to get a firepit dug so I can boil water, cook food… can dried beans be grown? I think so, but hmmm. Might be worth a try, see if I can’t establish a bit of a garden of my own. Will I need to hunt? I mean, I probably will. At least there’s actually animal life down here. A passing thought made him chuckle slightly. I wonder if this is the ‘low level’ area, where the spiders aren’t super terrifying, and all your standard woodland creatures live. It’s only when you venture further up that the massive bears and invisible prey start showing up? Man, if real life worked that way…. Well, I suppose stranger things have happened. I should try and find another spiderweb to see if it’s any weaker here.

Where was I? Oh, right. Shelter. Hmmm. It’s what, early afternoon? I could probably chop down a smaller tree or two to make a bit of a lean-to against the cliff that should serve me while I make something more permanent.

A tiny part of him whispered that living in the woods wasn’t actually a viable strategy long-term, but Edwin shut that whisper down. He wanted to enjoy this, darn it!

The first step was to locate an appropriate tree, Edwin knew. He wanted something tall but not too thick, and while there wasn’t anything that fully met his specifications around his meadow, the stream had enough young-growth trees that he’d probably find one there. He didn’t even have to venture that far, fortunately, before he encountered something that looked like it would work. The tree itself seemed to be somewhere between birch and pine, with white, fibrous bark (could he weave with this stuff, perhaps?), and was probably about six inches in diameter, which he made quick work of with his axe.

Hauling the lumber wasn’t all that bad, really. Other than the branches snagging on anything and everything- fortunately, Edwin was usually able to un-stick by yanking really hard, only having to lop off a single branch to make it all come along- the tree itself didn’t feel that heavy, despite being some forty feet tall at least.

Once he actually made it back to camp, Edwin chopped off the branches, piling them on the sandy soil underneath the rocky overhang. He did have a use for them after all, he left them attached this far just because he didn’t want to make multiple trips. Then, he cut the tree, his saw proving its use, into five roughly equal lengths, and with a twist of Visualization, started laying out exactly how his temporary home would work.

His first task was to dig two holes into the rich soil, just shy of eight feet apart and about three feet away from the rocky cliff. Actually, amend that to digging out the area to make it somewhat flat, then a bit more to give the area a bit of a recessed floor, then dig out the two holes. Into said holes, Edwin inserted his two logs from the bottom of the trunk, and therefore thickest and sturdiest, leaning them against the stone cliff face. Then, he filled in the holes, compacting the dirt as much as he could, which should theoretically hold his primary supports fairly steady.

After a couple of failed attempts to continue, Edwin repeated the process to give himself a third support in the middle.

That left two more segments of trunk, neither of which were too terribly sturdy. Fortunately, that also meant they weren’t terribly heavy, either. He cut some notches into his support and remaining logs, lining them up such that they slotted… more or less into one another. Then, he took his rope and bound them in place, providing a nice framework upon which he could lay branches, giving him a fairly cozy roof, though admittedly at the price of keeping three of his four coils of rope occupied (his longer ones, at that). Once he actually had everything assembled, though, he felt it was well worth the tradeoff.

The inside was still essentially just fresh dirt, though, so Edwin took the time to get a bunch of longer grass from his meadow and spread it out on the inside. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.

The final shelter wasn’t anything too terribly impressive, but Edwin was still proud of it, especially given he’d done it all in a single afternoon. The interior was a bit earthy-smelling, but it had enough room for Edwin and his stuff. It let out underneath the overhang, which was also where Edwin had set up his campfire. The other side he had filled in with his extra dirt, to help keep heat in. It may have still not yet rained (mage-fights notwithstanding), but Edwin wasn’t going to count on that. He probably should have asked Lefi about the weather patterns, but he hadn’t thought of it at the time. Regardless, no rain would put out his fire.

Night was starting to fall, though, so Edwin figured he should start getting ready for bed. Making a fire was trivial at this point, but it still felt so nice, and Edwin fell asleep with a smile on his face.