Neil 

 

After eating my lunch, I cleaned myself, the area around the pool and my first aid kit up as best I could.  Despite a thorough cleaning, even several minutes later I kept finding small splotches of blood on packages of bandages, the case itself, or even on the edge of the pool. Judging by the amount of blod I really had been about to die there, if she had been a bit slower with the potion that might have been it for me. 

 

Collecting my jeans from the now dirty looking pool I saw that that the stain had faded quite a bit. Remembering something I had read online I picked up my bottle of hydrogen peroxide and poured some on the stain. Working the pants between my hands I was pretty happy to see the stain fading more and more until it was barely noticeable. Thank you internet, you just saved my only pair of pants. 

 

Smiling at my work I gathered up my things and carried them over to where I had left my tent. Hanging up my now wet clothes to dry I began to consider my next course of action. There were a lot of things that I wanted to do and many things that I needed to do but were to start? 

 

Alright first things first, make a list. 

 

I needed a more permanent camp, some place protected by the elements, my tent was pretty good but I was worried about thunderstorms or high winds on the top of the mountain. 

 

Find a source of food, I was ok for a few more days but I really didn’t want to have to start going hungry. 

 

I needed weapons, or a fire for defense. My knives were good, especially compared to the crude stone knife that Shassala had used, but bows beat knives, but claws, fangs, and bodies made of acid could beat bows or knives. A spear and a spear thrower like an atlatl would be easy enough to make. Once you make the spear you just need to make a small shaft with a spur or cup on the end for the spear to sit in and you had an atlatl which was just a simple but effective spear thrower. 

 

I really wanted to try to make a healing potion like Shassala had. That had saved my life so one or two of those would be amazing to carry around, and according to the blue box I learned how to make it from watching her. 

 

There was also the question of Shassalas people, she had run off as soon as they arrived and she stopped me from meeting them. If she thought a meeting was a bad idea, I would have to take her word for it and avoid them for now. Eventually I would have to talk to them, I wanted to be an adventurer and explorer, I didn’t want to just end up some crazy hermit living alone on a mountaintop. 

 

Also my bag, it had some fairly large holes in it and if I wanted to use it again I would need to patch those with something. I had a sewing kit and a single patch but that wouldn’t be enough. I could probably use my destroyed shirt to patch it. 

 

I also really needed to Explore my surroundings more thoroughly, I really needed to see if there was anything useful up here, or anything that could hurt me. 

 

Last but definitely not least there was Magic. Apparently I knew water magic even if I hadn’t managed to do anything with it and I had no idea how to do anything with it. Still the boxes were usually on to something so I really wanted to experiment with that. 

 

There were probably other things I was forgetting but there were the main things I could think of for now. 

 

List made I decided on what to do first. Shelter, a fire, weapons, food, explore the immediate area and then everything else as I found the time for it. 

 

As much as I wanted magic and magic potions it was more important that I be able to feed myself and survive. 

 

A camp would be easy enough, the small square rooms would fit my tent, with a little room left over for a fire. I might need to use another room for storage for firewood or other things, but that was no problem. 

 

Setting up my camp was something I had perfected after dozens of camping trips and hikes and took me no time at all. I did have a hard time driving some of the stakes into the hard mountaintop but managed to make do by weighing down my tent with rocks on the corners instead. I also put all my clothes under my sleeping bag for a little extra cushion and left my pack out to try and fix later if I had time. The little room should secure me from the wind and keep me out of sight from any random animals or monsters.  

 

Next I wanted to make a spear for defense and fire to also scare away animals or monsters. Were monsters’ animals? Or would they be classified as something else? I supposed it didn’t really matter. As I needed wood for both a spear and a fire I decided to go to the garden and see what I had available. I would even be able to see if I could find any of the ingredients Shassala had used in the potion so I could gather them later. 

 

My course of action decided I walked to the garden spotting several of the yellow Creeping Vine flowers as I walked. Stopping at the flowers I looked at them and tried to will the blue box into existence. Not having any luck I thought as loudly as I could, ‘what is this?’ Again nothing.  

 

“What is this?” I asked and immediately a ding sounded followed by the window popping in front of me in what I thought was a more aggressive than normal fashion. 

 

 

 

Looking at the vines themselves I tried something a little different. “What?” and I was rewarded with a ding and a window. The vines themselves however were useless for anything except handholds if I decided to climb up on top of the walls. 

 

Continuing on to the garden as I was starting to think of it, I asked what everything was as soon as I arrived and I was rewarded by finding some edible and non-magical fruits and root vegetables as well as a poisonous plant. 

 

 

The Culuco was actually a very pretty white flower above ground that led down to a small ugly red potato looking kind of thing below ground. Without the window telling me it was healthy I probably wouldn’t have touched it. 

 

 

At that description I paused, who were The Old Empire? Did they make that rift? Or did they simply find the rift and settle around it? If they did settle here, how did they get here? There must be a way to other settlements I thought looking at the imposing mountain range across the valley, and dense jungles. 

 

 

 

At this description I stopped. This was the first plant I had found that had proven dangerous. It was a fairly small patch of red grass off to the side of the garden, but if I hadn’t looked I could have walked right through it when looking for wood or food. Fortunately the red spines running along the edges of the grass making the patches of it fairly easy to spot. 

 

I had wanted to look for firewood now not food or useful plants but I guess I would have to check everything first in order to make sure I wasn’t about to poison myself, and maybe I should move healing potions up on my list. I might need those sooner rather than later. 

 

Checking the garden as thoroughly as I could I did spot several more poisonous plants but nothing that would hurt me just from touching it so I started gathering arm loads of fallen wood and placing them in a small pile near the stairs that led up to the terrace that I had made into my camp. There was a fair amount of dead wood but not enough to last for more than a few days, the garden while large was mostly small plants and trees and since I didn’t want to cut anything down I would have to start foraging further in the future. 

 

When I had a large enough pile built up and even two long sticks that should make for good spears, I started bringing it back to my camp and piling most of it against the wall. That done I made a small fire pit by placing some rocks in a rough circle against one of the corners near the entrance. 

 

By now the sun was slipping underneath the mountain range, it wouldn’t be true nightfall for a few more hours but with the sun below the mountains the amount of walking around I could do without my flashlight was very limited.  

 

Deciding to get a small fire started I stripped off the bark from my two future spears and placed it in the middle of my fire rock circle with some small branches on it. Getting out my matches I looked inside of it, it was only about one third full and since the outside said 500 probably just under 150 left I guessed. 

 

Carefully lighting the match and starting a fire it wasn’t long before I had small fire cracking and popping in front of me, which was nice since it started getting darker much faster than I thought. 

 

I mostly sat and watched the flames listening to the sounds of the jungle as it came alive around me, this area definitely seemed to be nocturnal I thought to myself. Deciding that now was as good a time as any I started whittling one of my longer sticks into a sharp point, it didn’t take too long and by the light of the fire it seemed to be a fairly good spear but I would have to check it in the morning. 

 

Listening to the animals whooping and hollering on the mountain and watching the stars I knew I should be worried about the future but I just couldn’t bring myself to be. It was too beautiful and there was too much for me to be hopeful about in the future. Magic, exploration, Snake Girls and no more cleaning toilets at work and sharing a home with a smelly alcoholic slob. 

 

Before long I got into bed and lay down with my knives and spear near me. I didn’t think I would be able to get much sleep but I must have been more exhausted than I thought because before long the sun was illuminating my tent and waking me up. 

 

Feeling disoriented I was just thinking about how much I hated my job and my roommate Grant when I stopped. 

 

It was all just a dream, I didn’t get stabbed with an arrow by some snake girl, I wasn’t going to make magic potions today and go exploring abandoned ruins. In a few more days I would be back in my grungy staff accommodation and cleaning toilets at the hotel. Sitting up I felt my stomach protest with a few twinges of pain. Lifting my shirt I saw the red spot which was the only sign I had almost died yesterday. 

 

Looking at my tent I said, “What is it?” and was rewarded with a ding and a blue box. 

 

 

With a whoop I began getting dressed and ready for the day. Feeling more energized and alive than I had ever felt before I decided on a new course of action. Forget whatever other plans I had, today I was going to do some magic and make some magic potions! This was after all a magic world and I needed my own to keep up. As my stomach growled I decided magic practice could wait for after breakfast. 

 

With a smile that threatened to split my face in two I set off to my garden holding my spear in one hand and a garbage bag I normally stored my sleeping bag in in the other. 

 

I stopped at the Creeping vine flowers I had spotted the day before and I gathered a dozen of those before deciding I had enough. Since I had managed to spot some edible plants and the Telerath grass yesterday it shouldn’t be very hard to gather everything Shassala had and recreate her potion. 

 

The ding and the window made me stop short. 

 

 

 

Find the following ingredients and discover how to mix them together to make a health potion! Success will improve your POTION MAKING skill! 

 

 

With a smile I set out to find both my breakfast and the last ingredient that I would need.