Frank’s excitement to go out hunting grew as his leg rapidly approached a healthy status. His dad had taught him how to hunt some years ago, and he had done it on occasion to save on food expenses though never for sport. The excitement did not come from the prospect of having to take a life, but more so how he would be pitting his craft and skill against the real world.

  To give himself the best odds he could, he spent most of the morning on his tenth day here on atlatl practice. And he was pleased to see it pay off. He held little faith in being good enough to do it properly under pressure once the first dart was thrown, but reliably hitting within half a meter diameter up to 15 meters away should hopefully be enough to avoid him needing a second throw.

  Then it became time to do something he had been preparing on the side over the past few days, making pemmican. Whenever he skinned an animal he had been filling one of his pots with solid animal fat. That was one of the two ingredients ready in its raw form.

  The second was the meat he had cooked solid, which he proceeded to grind into a coarse powder; a process that took quite a while. Then, he added the fat to a pot he had preheated and let it melt. Once it had liquefied, he used a flat piece of wood to fish out any solids and skimmed the top.

  He soon removed the pot from the fire and let it and the fat inside cool down a bit. While it was still hot, though no longer scalding, he poured in his ground meat in about a one-to-one ratio, leaving him with a small amount of meat leftover. Lastly, he used his hands to mix it all together, ensuring that all of the meat was properly covered in fat. At the end, he had approximately 4 kilos of pemmican mass; now it just needed to set. This amount had been limited more by the drying time than raw meat or fat.

  If he only ate pemmican, then he should have enough for 8 days of a mostly full stomach, but that would be against the point. The point of the pemmican was that it would last a while, so he intended to avoid it for as long as possible after putting a lid on it and placing it in a shaded place. Besides, if he really got to the point of needing it, he would try to make it last quite a bit more than 8 days.

  That whole scenario also presumed that he would be unable to forage any fruits or berries from his surroundings, of which he had plenty of options. It was more so to ensure that he had a source of meat, if he should be prevented from checking on traps or hunting for a prolonged period of time.

  When he took out the pot of fat, he had replaced it with another batch of fat to use for his second project: a larger batch of lye soap. In much the same way as a few days ago, he made another mix of soap, but this time he used a clay mold he’d thrown together yesterday to let it set in, allowing him to remove it easily afterwards.

  He spent the remaining daylight going through the forest, foraging fern and palm-like plants for his next project: a shelter. The core concept of this was incredibly simple; drive logs into the ground at an angle and prop them up against his root roof, using the uneven bark to help hold them in place – he had already tested that he could not even rip or knock it off with a stick. Besides a few more stabilizing logs, he would mainly be layering and lashing the fronds to the wall sticks to create the actual wall.

  While this doubtlessly needed a whole lot of fronds, he had certainly seen enough of them while walking through the forest, and he in fact had already collected a small pile. With that said, it still took him almost until sundown to collect what he hoped would be enough for about half of the 4 meters he intended to make on either side.

  During this collection period, he made sure to bring his used pots and bowls down to the creek to rinse them properly, taking extra care to wash the ones used for ash and lye.

  The pelts, now reasonably dried, should last until he started tanning. The snares had also borne prey once more, so he had another pair of pelts up to dry by noon.

  The hours that followed dragged by at a snail’s pace as he split the fronds in half to weave his wall with. Every time he finished a layer, he would have the following cover about three quarters of the previous to create a mostly watertight wall.

  As evening rolled around and the light started to dim, Frank called it good for today. The wall was progressing at a great pace, and he had already finished about two thirds of the 4-meter-long wall. He had encountered a slight difficulty after reaching chest height, as reaching it comfortably was becoming a little tough. His solution gave him his first actual reason to appreciate his shapeshifting, as he came up with the idea of extending his legs a bit each to make reaching easier. It was also the first time he had changed into something from anyone other than Alisha, as he went with the legs of his tall friend Philip.

  Once Frank had gathered the fronds to make sure they didn’t blow away, he went for a clay-gathering trip. He wanted to use the light that remained to stock up his reserves, which were running low. The clay deposit was thankfully large enough for him not to have to worry about running out in the foreseeable future; it was just a question of getting it back to camp. After another batch of clay had been delivered, he spent the remaining light gathering even more fronds, as he would need way more than he currently had for both this and the second wall.

  When the sun’s light grew dim, he moved over to shaping pots in varying sizes with just the light of his campfire. Once they were finished, he placed them near the campfire to dry as it burned down through the night.

  As he was about to head to bed, a part of him wanted to uncover the basin and see if it was ready to use, but as it would likely be a day or two until he wanted to start tanning anyway, he let it stay for more time to cool off; impatience just risked the basin further.

  [Survivor Level 9]

  [Skill – Basic Construction obtained]

  “That’s a little sooner than expected but definitely appreciated. Though I suppose I have been surviving steadily for the past four days, even if it hasn’t been as rushed as at the start.”

  [Detect Toxin (Natural)] had helped the food situation a lot, so that was mostly a nonissue now. That was a large part of why it hadn’t surprised Frank that it was slower to Level up. Add to that how levels would obviously take longer as they got higher, that much was just basic game knowledge.

  That said, he had been getting quite a bit done with ensuring further survival and a look at his thigh showed that it had healed. And though calling it “completely healed” would be a bit of an exaggeration – he could still feel some pain – it had become just a red mark with any remaining jolts of pain ignored through [Minor Resistance: Pain]. Ignored, not suppressed. He had paid careful attention and concluded that he could still feel the pain, it just reduced the extent he reacted to it, so it effectively raised his pain tolerance. He had initially been a little worried that it would reduce his ability to feel pain, which would’ve been really scary.

  Despite itching to get out there and see the fruits of his practice, he chose to delay the hunt another day or two. Should it start to rain, even for a while, he already had enough food to last a week with ease, so he’d prefer to have shelter as well. Thus, he started work on the wall after finishing up everything else he did every morning.

  In just a few short, albeit boring, hours Frank finished the wall. Despite having to work on the hardest part, this bit had gone by far the fastest of any part of the wall. [Basic Construction] was the origin of this sudden bump on speed.

  Like with his other “Basic” Skills, this one helped his construction work in a number of different small, though impactful, ways. The most basic examples were having an easier time both layering the ferns and tying them to the rafters. The knots were also tied a little tighter to hold everything even better in place.

  By the time afternoon rolled around, he had reached a solid halfway point of the second wall, but he had run out of fronds, so he had to leave to collect more. This time, however, he actually had a bit more of a specific route in mind. Since he knew that he would need either cane, willow, or some similar material to weave the back wall, then heading in the direction he recalled seeing such a tree made sense. It was back when he had initially explored the forest for a water source that he had noticed a willow-like tree, and since willow was a very useful and versatile plant on Earth, he had made sure to memorize his location the best he could.

  On his way towards the tree, he continued to gather fronds as well. When he arrived, he afforded himself a moment to just take in the pleasant smell of the tree, which did in fact smell like a proper willow tree. Even amongst the sheer lushness of the forest and the plethora of smells, the smell of this tree specifically was uniquely relaxing and nostalgic. From when he had been a kid, him and his mother had spent a significant amount of time every Winter weaving willow branches they had harvest and dried earlier in the year.

  Satisfied for now, he cut off as many of the thin, hanging branches as he could carry. Beyond making the back wall of his hut, he also wanted to try and plant some close to his hut. With how wildly everything close to the Tree of Life seemed to grow, he had a hope that it would take significantly less than a year before he could harvest his first proper willow branches for weaving. That said, he didn’t intend to plant everything that would be left over. Instead, he wanted to keep some amount in reserve for whenever it might be needed.

  On the way back, he spent a little extra time marking the path to the tree for easier access in the future. Additionally, he noticed that in the area close to the willow, the number of animal tracks was quite high, as it was deceptively far from the Tree of Life. But that was something he could be concerned with tomorrow, if all went well.

  After returning, he made another short trip into the forest to gather some more fronds to ensure he had not only enough to build the wall, but also to fix mistakes or do emergency repairs. The sun had reached early evening as he put the final touches on the wall, leaving just the back wall.

  The back wall was in fact really simple. He had dug a lot of straight sticks vertically into the ground as uprights. Each stick barely reached the slanted ceiling so as to not breach it. Between the uprights, he proceeded to weave the willow such that a wall was formed. Now he just needed the mud.

  This was where he encountered an incredibly strange issue. When he dug a ditch with a stick at the back wall and mixed the loose dirt with water, the water was practically repelled from it. As he stood there and stared at it, completely stunned by dirt being hydrophobic, all of the water suddenly sucked into the ground in a split second, with the loose dirt staying dry. After a few experiments, he temporarily solved this issue by mixing the dirt and water in a pot instead of the ground. It didn’t remove the weird initial hydrophobic aspect, but it did prevent it from going into the ground.

  This was by far the most tedious process, as he had to not only collect the water from the creek and bring it back here but also move the dirt twice. As for where he got the dirt, he used a stick to expand the small ditch around the hut. This way he got both mud and a drainage ditch at the same time. He hoped that the ditch would act as enough of a buffer for the ground to absorb the water before it overflowed, because then he wouldn’t have to dig a channel away.

  The mud was then slathered onto the wall, sealing it up. It dried soon after he applied the mud, so he had to work quickly; the ground could apparently still suck out the water of mud if they reconnected.

  By the time he had finished the hut, the sun was less than an hour from vanishing over the horizon. One of the last things he did for the day after cleaning his hands of mud was to get a fire going in the hut and to set the drying racks up in here as well. The actual last thing was to move all of his pottery inside, including the pemmican; if it started to rain for a long period of time, he would prefer not having to go into the rain to get his food. Getting a supply of firewood ready would be something he could do tomorrow after hunting. With that done, he went to bed satisfied.

  When Frank hunted animals back on Earth, it was never for just the thrill. It was inevitably a part of it, but he always made sure to use everything he reasonably could of what he had slain. That led him to his current conundrum as he prepared to go hunting: what would he actually gain from this?

  Say he slew a deer, what would he gain that he wasn’t already obtaining from his snares? The most obvious answer was the pelt, which would be far larger than the small ones he had gotten so far. The second was that so long as he spent a few days processing it, he would greatly improve his pemmican and jerky stock in one go. Though at the same time, it wasn’t as if he wouldn’t be gradually building that regardless, given how successful the snares had been so far.

  Additionally for that last part to be true, he’d have to be properly set up beforehand. The setup alone would probably take a day or two if he wanted the ability to focus fully on the result of his hunt.

  The third and final gain he could think of was the potential for leveling, if not gaining another Class. He still didn’t know what did and didn’t count for the System. A part of him would have expected to get a [Lumberjack] or [Potter] Class with all he had done, assuming they exist, of course. But considering that both [Warrior] and [Survivor] were actual Classes, it would almost be down-right weird if something along the lines of the former two didn’t exist.

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  Instead, it seemed like at least [Potter] would overlap with [Survivor], given how the latter gave him the Skill [Basic Shaping], which also helped with pottery. He had thus become curious about what hunting an animal would do. On one hand, one could just chuck it under [Warrior] and call it a day, but that personally didn’t sit right with him; [Warrior] sounded more like someone who fought in battles over someone who tracked beasts for food. Regardless, he did not know, so going for one hunt would hopefully clarify that a bit.

  In the end, he decided that he’d rather not waste the result of the hunt. Thanks to his other preparation and Skills, he was not immediately hungering for food, and putting off the hunt wouldn’t kill him. As such, it was time to prepare.

  Two days later, Frank finally felt like everything was in order and ready for him to go hunting. He had increased his number of smokers from one to three, prepared more grills for drying meat for pemmican, and prepared a lot of firewood. During this time, he had found three of his snares destroyed and a single animal caught, so he processed that as well.

  In this period, he both planted a few willow branches and went to gather some more. He was not too sure how he’d go about watering them, but a part of him hoped that either rain or the Tree of Life would take care of it. If nothing seemed to happen for a while, then he would look further into it.

  With all of that handled, time had come for him to go out hunting. After giving it some thought, he had decided to do it near the creek for two main reasons. First, and most important, he intended to look for footprints, so doing it near an area with more moist and malleable ground made sense, and it was a water source as well. Second, the creek would serve as a good landmark when he’d have to get back, since he probably wouldn’t have the time to mark his path while actively trailing an animal.

  He brought three main pieces of equipment with him for this. First was the atlatl and its darts. The launcher was just lodged between his belt and himself, and the darts were strapped diagonally across his back with a few cuts of cordage across his upper body. Second was his spear for self-defense. And last but not least, a bundle of cordage hung over his chest; he didn’t know what he might encounter, and it could be too large to carry home, so he wanted the option to drag it.

  His main goal with this hunt was not to target anything specific, like a deer, but instead to get a feel for atlatl hunting. That said, if he managed to spot a deer without it seeing him, he wouldn’t just let it walk away without giving it a shot. The secondary goal was to see if tracking and hunting something would do something interesting System-wise.

  Therefore, when he looked for footprints near the creek, he ignored anything too large. He didn’t trust his skills with the atlatl enough to go after anything like the boar he’d seen. Additionally, he’d prefer to have stone-tipped darts before taking on something even half its size.

  As he was actively looking for it, it did not take him long to find multiple sets of footprints; it was after all a source of water and animals needed to drink. As most animals he had seen thus far had either looked to be a variant of one from Earth or a mix of multiple, he decided to roughly trust his existing knowledge.

  After studying some of the prints some more, he eventually settled on what appeared to be something close to a large rabbit, hare, or similarly moving animal. He could see this by how the tracks had small imprints in the back and a larger pair in the front. The prints also looked fresh, so it should hopefully not be too far away.

  A closer look at the smaller pair of paw prints revealed them to look more feline than what he had expected from a rabbit. Thinking it over a little, he recalled that his snares had previously caught a cat-like creature with the fur and hind legs of a rabbit which he had called “cattit”. That was his guess for what he’d be hunting.

  It soon became apparent that tracking it may be a little harder than initially expected, as the distance between each set of footsteps was somewhere between 1 and 2 meters and they we not especially deep.

  With that said, it wasn’t like he had expected to track it from just that in the first place. Beyond the footsteps, he also kept an eye out for traces of fur, excrement, or really any other sign of it. All of these factors combined allowed him to track it down.

  After almost losing the trail a few too many times to admit, Frank found himself at a bit of a conundrum; the last set of footsteps ended before a seemingly random tree. He had looked around as best he could, but there did not seem to be any other recent signs of the cattit.

  That all led him to study the tree a bit further, upon which he noticed something of interest. There was a patch of bark that looked quite worn down, as if something had struck it repeatedly over a long period of time. The spot was at about his head height, which sounded plenty plausible for an overgrown feline rabbit.

  However, what confused him was where the cattit would have jumped to, since the nearest branch sat well over twice this height above the ground. It was when he looked around with the jumping context that noticed a similar patch on a tree about a meter away, and lastly one more just shy of the branch. ‘Huh, it would appear that I’m dealing with a wall-jumping animal. This will be interesting.’

  As he studied the trunk further, especially the area near the branch, he noticed a hole going into the tree itself, similarly to that of a squirrel’s nest. It did not take a genius to put 2 and 2 together from there, so now he just had to figure out how to either get up there, or how to get it out of there, assuming it hadn’t yet left.

  The pro of going up there was that he would be able to check if it really was its nest, and if it was and it was home, he would be blocking its path, so it hopefully wouldn’t be getting away. The con of going up there was that he would be blocking its path while sitting on a branch well over 5 meters above ground level, which sounded like a perfect recipe for disaster. Besides, he didn’t know if scaling the tree would make it flee if it was home.

  The pros and cons for staying on the ground were practically the exact opposite, so, for safety’s sake, he decided to stay grounded for now. This did, however, mean that he would not know if he had really found its nest or not. As such, he readied a dart on his atlatl and stood ready for close to a minute. Then he realized that that didn’t make a lot of sense, and he’d probably have to force it out.

  The tree was over half a meter in diameter, so he didn’t hold much hope for an attempt at shaking it. Instead, he looked around for a few fist-sized stones. He did not care to actually hit the entrance at all, instead being satisfied with anywhere near it; it was far more important that he could quickly shift over to a proper atlatl stance. On that note, he made sure to put down his bundle of cordage before starting this. No need to be weighed down unnecessarily.

  The first stone smashed into the side of the tree and left a small mark, but Frank was unable to see anything happen, though he was convinced he could hear some movement. Thus, he threw another stone, this time actually aiming for the entrance now that he had a bit more of a feel for the distance.

  The second stone had a markedly more impressive impact than the former, as a brown figure shot out of the entrance and across the branch. With adrenaline kicking in, he hurriedly switched his atlatl back to his main hand and took aim. As he was about to shoot, a part of him realized that it was already too far away for him to rely on his piss-poor aim. Regardless, he fired it in front of where the animal would be to scare it down to the ground.

  He accomplished his goal as his dart slammed into the trunk in the direction the branch was pointing, and the shock made the cattit flee the branch. In the precious seconds the beast was mid-air, Frank concluded that he would be too slow at drawing another dart from his back. He dropped the atlatl and rushed towards its estimated destination, pulling forth his spear in the process.

  Now, what he hadn’t expected was for the animal to turn towards him before it landed and immediately rush him down; he had considered it far too much of a rabbit and completely forgotten the feline aspect. The cattit was about half the size of the wolf that had attacked him, which was much larger than he had expected, and it sure moved like a cat out of hell.

  There was already not far between them, but it closed the distance in just two bounces, with the second launching it straight towards his stomach at full force. As it flew that last bit, it must have been able to turn in the air, as both of its legs kicked him in the guts at full force before he could react. Frank stumbled back, fighting just to stay standing from both the force and pain. More than ever, his subconscious appreciation for [Minor Resistance: Pain] skyrocketed as he let out multiple breathless expletives.

  He had barely regained his footing and half a breath before it was upon him once more. In the last second, he managed to at swipe his spear up as it jumped at his chest, but he missed. However, this time around he was slightly more mentally prepared, so he was able to react properly and only take a single step backwards as pain spread across his chest, much more than at his gut. He also noticed that the darts on his back felt looser than mere moments ago.

  As the beast landed back on the ground, it began to circle counterclockwise around him with rapid jumps. ‘Fucking hell, I did not want to fight a roo’s sibling.’ Though it was clearly more wary of him after his swing, even if he didn’t hit it.

  While circling him, it stayed about two leaps away, giving it way too much time to react to any approach. The speed at which it moved was nothing to sneeze at either. Even though he just had to turn around to follow it, it was hard to do so fast enough while maintaining a good structure. During this time, he managed to catch his breath a little more despite the growing pain.

  After it had gone on for what felt like an eternity, the cattit suddenly sped up further. Forgoing everything about maintaining a proper stance, he turned just in time to see it leap towards him. Since he was already turning, he did his best to transition it into a sideways [Smack]. The thud of the direct hit filled him with a mix of relief and satisfaction as the beast sailed into the ground. The crunch he had heard along with the thud did not feel quite as good, but that stemmed more from his subconscious association between the spear and “pure” martial arts practice.

  Before he had time to even process whatever he might feel about what happened, he rushed over to the cattit. It was having trouble getting up, as its left hindleg kept buckling under it. While its pained cries would’ve made most people hesitate, they did nothing to slow down Frank; he had hunted enough times to not let himself allow the animal to suffer more than needed.

  Despite its damaged state, it still tried to jump away as he approached, to very limited effect. A quick [Smack] to its backside left it limp and the following cut to its neck finished it.

  Now that he finally had a moment to breathe, the pain from the wounds on his upper body really hit. Without even looking down, he could feel that his undershirt was soaked in blood. As his mind grew more aware of the situation and the adrenaline receded, he could feel the pain grow worse with every beat of his heart. So, he sat down to avoid a potential fall. He didn’t even notice that the darts were not in his way as he did.

  His entire rib cage screamed as he pulled off his tunic and undershirt. He failed to notice the lack of cordage that should have kept his darts in place as his mind was elsewhere.

  What he saw were four real cuts and a few scratched around them. The two on his gut were the lightest and even looked incomplete at less than half a centimeter deep, as if the claws had been pulled too early. This fit with him having been knocked multiple steps back after the first kick. Thankfully, at least, nothing serious appeared to have been cut, but he feared how much internal damage he might have suffered.

  It was only when he inspected the chest wounds that he recalled the missing darts, because he found small stands of cordage in the lesser, right cut, which would’ve been where the cordage should have been. Though he thought of it as “lesser”, both still went down to ribs, which had definitely been scored as well.

  He was incredibly thankful for his tunic’s, and presumably undershirt’s, self-restoring property as he cut off the cuff of each of the undershirt’s sleeves and further halved them. To start with, he stuffed half a cuff into each wound on his chest and gut as best he could, as he wanted to just prevent as much blood loss as possible. Then he tied a few loops of cordage around both sets of injuries to help hold them in place.

  ‘Actually, could I seal the wounds with [Person of Many Faces]?’

  Calling forth his mental model, he forced himself to stare at wounds, despite the z-fighting messing with his mind. As he tried to apply his image of their healthy state, nothing happened.

  ‘Why isn’t it working? I can feel the Condition activate, but nothing’s changing…’ And with that thought, realization dawned on him. “Oh fuck… it’s already healthy from my ability’s perspective.”

  Throwing out the idea of being able to magically heal himself, Frank gathered himself and forced himself up. He did not want to risk relaxing too much in this state out here. Having grabbed his gear, he now had to get back, and with his prey at that; that most certainly wouldn’t be left behind.

  He approached the carcass to inspect it. It was a lot larger than the one his snare had caught. “How to bring it back. I could drag it like I did the wolf, but I’d prefer not to ruin a good hide, and I don’t want to deal with it catching on roots and whatnot. If it’s not too heavy, I might try over the shoulder or hanging down the back. Then if it hurts too much, I can drag it instead.”

  With his mind made up, he squatted by it and gave it a careful lift. Thanks to his increased strength, estimating its weight was a little troublesome, but it was probably in the ballpark of 20-25 kilograms. Then he maneuvered the hind legs past his darts and spear and over his shoulders before slowly standing up.

  With his physical burden increased and a few new injures, Frank made the now annoyingly long trek home. Throughout which he kept a watchful eye on his surroundings, which remained unnervingly quiet broken only by the occasional birdsong.

  Having returned to camp, Frank was officially the most exhausted he had ever felt, but he couldn’t sleep just yet. First up, a look at his wounds showed that his abilities had expectedly healed the scratches, and the cuts had long stopped bleeding and were already closing; he had had to remove the cloth on the way back before his body tried to trap it.

  That said, he still wanted to clean them before they healed completely. So, he gathered the lye soap he had made a while ago. From the cured block, he cut a small piece he could use; the pot had been moved down to the creek after this cured. It would in no way be as good as any modern disinfectant, but between this and risking caustic burns with the pure ash, the soap was the much safer choice.

  After rinsing each wound thoroughly, he rubbed them with the soap and closed them back up. He would rinse away the soap momentarily, but first he gave it a little time to work.

  Once he had dressed his wounds, he cut a more sizable chunk of soap and wrapped it in some of the excess fronds and tied them together. This way he could bring it with him from now on. He had forgotten to prepare this previously, as he did most of everything here anyways.

  With that done, he moved on to hanging the cattit up on a branch to drain whatever blood could still be drained. As this would take some time, he went down to the creek to refill his water pots.

  The following hours of work were anything but comfortable or relaxing. Since he had already made all of the preparations, he decided to at least skin the animal and prepare enough meat for the smokers and grills to get going before taking an early rest after having a bite to eat.

  His late lunch was a stew of some fruits and roots he had found and meat from the cattit, after which he cleaned the wounds. As he finally went to take a rest, he was just relieved to be alive. With that said, he definitely needed to be more careful in the future, especially the roles he subconsciously gave to animals. Beyond that, he was looking forward to Leveling up; he would be severely disappointed if nothing happened after such an eventful day.

  [Class Tracker obtained]

  [Tracker Level 1]

  [Skill – Notice Trail obtained]

  [Warrior Level 6]

  [Skill – Strengthen Weapon obtained]

  [Skill – Power Stab obtained]