With the pain from his posterior gone and the sun already half-up the sky, the unlucky fellow, as he would have described himself, saw no remaining good reason for continuing to delay the construction of his shelter. It wasn’t long before his usual spot in the clearing was filled with alternating piles of wood, leaves and stones, courtesy of his |Resource Vision| Skills. As an added bonus, his |Gatherer| Class advanced to Level 3. No new Skills though.

With the building materials gathered and the construction spot already decided, he now thought about how to go about doing the construction itself. Confident as he had been before, now, with the action about the start, he found himself not that impressed with his own designs.

“So… I need it to keep the sun out. Rain too, even if it’s not been an issue so far. And whatever critters are probably around.” He said.

“I also need it to be durable, so the wind doesn’t just tear it down. Not that wind has been an issue either.” He did muse for a moment that the elements had been suspiciously gracious with him, but it didn’t occupy his thoughts for long.

“And I need to do all this with sticks, stones and leaves… Well, how hard could it be?” he finished, cheerfully.

Hard.

His first design was inadequate, by the simple act of crumbling in on itself, mere moments after it had been assembled. Apparently, sticks and branches don’t normally stand firm on the ground, even if supported by each other.

His second design was much better, looking like a series of inverted V’s, open in front and tapering down, towards the back. He even slightly pushed the sticks into the ground for a better… well, grounding. Simple as the design appeared to be, he was quite pleased with it.

The error in his design or perhaps in the insufficient forethought, became apparent when he tried to get in.

“This is so small. Should have made it bigger. I can crouch, but if I try to lay down… let’s see.” He said, tentatively laying down on his back, head near the front and the legs near the back.

He could almost stretch himself completely. He did try to, at least. Which was when one of his legs accidently kicked one the support branches and it all came crashing down on him.

“Gah! Bad shelter!” he said, untangling himself from the mess of branches and sticks.

“Right, this doesn’t cut it. It’s not stable. And it’s too small. I need something for support.” He said looking around.

He did have enough material to build something bigger. With the initial enthusiasm worn off, he hardened himself for the laborious task in front.

“Ok, here goes the rest of the day. I better make it by nightfall.” He sighted.

…

“I should have just tried to make clothes.”

Now more serious, he gave himself to the task at hand. The earth was cleaned of debris and much of the grass there was removed. The underlying earth was repeatedly hit by one of the smoother stones in order to make for a more compact surface. Which was where he messed up again, as he had forgotten to place some of the thicker branches in the earth, for support. Soon, he had three pairs of such ‘pillars’ grounded and spaced apart, the middle pair being the tallest, with wooden ‘beams’ connecting the pairs. Normal branches were laid atop the beams, creating a make-shift roof, starting from the ground, going all the way to the up-most ‘beam’ and the down to earth again.

Stepping back for a moment, to admire his construction, he took a moment to engage in logical self-doubt.

“I’ll definitely fit now. It’s a little longer than I am tall and definitely wider. I’ll probably have to crouch, even in the center, but I can live with it. But is it sturdy?” he asked, approaching his construction.

He looked at it from the front, from the side, even kneeling to look inside it. All seemed fine. With his heart in his throat, he stood up again and gave the central pillar a kick with his foot.

“Ouch!” he said. And after a second: “Yes! It stands. I am so gonna sleep in you tonight!”.

With the stability of his construction verified, he went on to finish his design. The entire thing looked like a wide triangle standing on the ground, with the front and back, opened. Well, that wouldn’t do. He picked some sticks of varying lengths and plunged them into the ground at the back side of the shelter. They weren’t really supported, but some wiggling showed him that they were grounded enough that they wouldn’t budge, not without him deliberately trying to unearth them.

What followed was placing stones around the sides and back, further anchoring the branches to the earth and dispersing the leaves on the ‘roof’ of his shelter, to block out what little sunlight was still managing to stream it.

The remaining leaves he threw in, in order to make a sort of forest mattress.

“I should have left the grass. This isn’t nearly as soft.” He complained.

“But still.”

He went in, sitting on the ground, in the center of his wooden hut.

“This will do. I wonder if I have enough time for clothes.” He wondered.

 

|New Class Available: Tinker|

|Class Level and Skills accessible after acceptance. |

|Accept new class? |

 

…

“Really? I get a Tinker Class from building a shelter? How many of these things are out there?” he asked in surprise.

“Hmm, I wonder if I could get a mushroom-related Class if I keep eating them?” he said, while closing his eyes in thought.

“Ah, I forgot how annoying this was.” He said, not a second later.

The text from before was visible to him again, each and every time he closed his eyes.

“Fine.” He said, after a moment of thought. “I accept.”

 

|Class Accepted: Tinker|

|Class Level: 3|

|New Skills:|

|Basic Repair|

|Basic Crafting|

 

“Level 3, huh? So, making stuff is more important than picking stuff? Or just considered harder by whoever is giving me this… stuff?” he wondered.

“I wonder. Hey, whoever is doing this.” he said, raising his voice a little, looking ahead, but in no direction in particular. “Could you please tell me what is happening? Or who I am?”

No response came. Yet he was more determined than last time. Or perhaps just more desperate.

“I’m having fun and all, diarrhea aside, but I’m kind of lost. And I can’t remember anything.”

…

“Please?” his voice broke a little.

He would have cried then, pride be damned, but his situation wasn’t inspiring sadness, not really. It was simply not inspiring anything at all.

Lost, like he said.

“It was worth a try.” He said, comforting himself.

With an attempt at self-distraction, he turned his mind to the newly acquired skills.

“|Basic Repair|. So I can repair things, but only basic things. Or I can only repair them a little?”

He looked around, trying to make the skill work the same way he did with his Vision Skill, but nothing was happening.

“Well, I guess nothing IS broken. And |Basic Crafting|. What can I craft?” he asked himself.

He thought about clothing again, only if before he had only a vague idea about them, he now knew he could make a type of skirt made from leaves and roots. Footwear as well, when he thought about it. He knew it, like he knew the sun would go up each morning. A certainty.

“Huh, so that’s new. …And slightly frightening. This Skill puts ideas in my head? I can’t remember ever learning about… I guess they’re sandals, but now I know what they look like and how to make them.” He said, incredulously.

“What else?”

His thoughts trailed to his most immediate experiences. Shelter? He could improve it a little, but his Skill didn’t provide any ground-breaking ideas. Clothes? Other than the afore-mentioned skirt and sandals, nothing new came to mind. But he did think that he could make the fire safer, by arranging stones around it. And that he could fashion vessels out of wet mud to carry water in. The more he thought about it, the more these ideas grew. If the vessels could be laid by the fire, the mud would harden and change, which would make them better at resisting water damage. The mud itself could be used to coat the sides and the back of his shelter. The stick he used to hit mushrooms with, could be sharpened, acting as a makeshift spear. Useful, if he met any animals that should be living in this forest.

It seemed that he needed to actively think about an item or a need, before ideas became apparent in his head. Yet, like the name of the Skill said, his ideas were only basic. No big workings for him.

“But I’m only level 3. That means I’ll be able to make nicer things latter on, right?”

As usual, no answer was provided, not that by now he was expecting any.

“I have some time before the sun goes down.” He said, looking at the sky.

“Might as well make the most of it.

His mud pots were the first. The river had that soft earth that he needed… clay, right next to it. He fashioned a couple of pots right then and there, on a flat looking stone. Not trusting them just yet, he took them back to his site without filling them. On the way, he picked up a fallen branch, a longer one and dragged it to his destination. Once arrived he made a fire, remembered to encircle it with stones and placed the mud pots near it to dry. While he waited, he used some of the stone chips that resulted from his first attempt at making fire, to sharpen the long branch, after ripping the smaller branches from it, few as they were. Once done, he turned the pots, so they’d get an even distribution of heat, not even amazed that he knew this, and stood up.

“That’s right. King of the forest!” he laughed.

And promptly sat down again.

“Wow, I feel dizzy. I guess I upset my stomach enough that it’s not grumbling, even if I’m hungry. I really have to diversify my diet. Diversify. Di-ver-si-fyyyy.” He said, spelling out the new word he used.

“This will never not be weird.”

“But I do have to eat more things.”

He suddenly looked at the trees.

“How come there’s no birds?”

It was true he didn’t expect to see birds at the edge of the clearing, but he had been in the forest just now and didn’t notice any.

“Maybe I scared them off?” He said, thinking. Or maybe, MAYBE I should have used my skill! Idiot!” he laughed.

“Oh, I am so gonna eat something good today.” He said, standing and walking towards the forest.

He reasoned that there was enough daylight left in the day to catch something, that is, if there was anything there to catch and fry it on the fire.

He was halfway to the mushroom spot, when he decided to use it.

“Ok. Resource Vision!”

Nothing.

“Birds! Come on, there has to be some of them around here.”

He looked around, yet the bushes around him revealed nothing. Straining, he continued to look, raising his sight up and up, towards the trees. He concentrated, almost feeling his Skill working, until at last he noticed something.

“There.” He said, voice, barely above a whisper.

And true enough, above in the branches, a small bird was sitting quietly. He wasn’t sure it was a bird, until he saw its small movements.

“Odd. Why was it so hard to spot? It is high up and… small, but now that it’s there, I can definitely see it’s not camouflaged or anything.”

Breaking out of his reverie, he reached for the spear he had started to carry around.

He thought he could almost taste it, while preparing to throw it. Expert shot he was not, but he hoped he made up for his lack of accuracy with sheer hunger.

“You. Are. MINE!” he yelled while throwing.

Of course, the bird flew off, alarmed by the sudden loud voice. Also expected, was the fact that his spear missed the bird, by a few feet. What was not normal, was that only half of his spear flew. The first half, to be exact. The latter half of it fell to the ground, revealing a broken shaft.

“Oh common! It broke? I finally had it and it broke?” he said, preferring to blame his spear rather than accept his lack of skill as a hunter.

“No. I have broken it.” A voice spoke, behind him.

With so much time passed, solely hearing his own voice, it was only natural that his reaction was not a very calm one.

“AAAAAAH!” he screamed, dropping to the ground.

He looked around and he saw legs.

Looking some more, he noticed that those legs were part of a person. And judging by the expression on the face of that person, she, because she was definitely a she, looked somewhat cross with the young man.

“Hi.” He said, standing upright. “It’s so good to see you! You’re the first person I’ve saw in… in forever!” he continued, babbling.

“I started thinking I was alone and that this forest was deserted. Who are you? I’m… ah…” he trailed of, with some of the energy fading.

“I do not much care for your name.” she said, misreading his pause. “Nor do I care for what you think. I do care for the life in this forest, one such life you had just tried to end.” She finished.

“Uh…”

It was only with the energy of seeing somebody else for the first time draining off, that he started noticing things. Like how her skin was pale green. Or how her features we’re slightly elongated and inhuman. Green eyes, yet the irises were bigger than normal. Pointed ears. Green hair with twigs and leaves sticking out. Taller than him too, by half a head. No, definitely not human.

Another detail he noticed, one that is slightly irrelevant to the world as large, yet noticeable to a man of his age, alone in a forest, was that she had little in amount of clothing. Very little. Vine-like foliage covered her intimate areas, yet most of her was bare to see.

He was suddenly very grateful he remembered how to make the grass skirt, before thinking about birds.

“Have you anything to say?” she asked, not impressed with his silence.

“I was hungry?” he tried, wincing at his poor choice of words.

She lifted an eyebrow.

“You have fed on plants before this. You can continue to do so in the future.” She replied, evenly.

“I can’t eat just mushrooms. I do that and my stomach might just decide to leave my body.” He whined.

“Then eat other plants. Regardless, it is not my place to teach you how to survive. Learn it yourself, or leave my forest.” She said. “Death would be acceptable, since it would provide nutrients to the very soil you took from.”

The fact that she said this straight-faced sent shiver up his spine.

“So… you’re not going to do anything to me? Like, for staying here, eating plants, gathering branches?”

The absence of his spear while he stood before her was very clear in his mind. Not that he thought it would have done much good regardless.

“Sustaining yourself on greenery is acceptable. Animals do it as well, so I can pretend you are part of the wildlife. You have so far gathered dead wood and only small living branches were disturbed. As before, I can consider you part of the forest. But you have just now attempted to take a life.” She spoke.

“Sorry?”

“No. I am telling you this, because even a child merits a warning. But no more than one. Do it again and it will be you who will break, instead of your spear.” She said, now with a more intense expression.

“Got it! Sure thing, no need to worry about it. I’ll only eat plants from now on. Or just mushrooms, if I can’t get anything else. Nooooo problem.” He spoke rapidly.

“Good.”

“Can I ask who you are? It’s just that I don’t-”

“No.”

“Alright.”

She turned to leave.

“Best you do not give me cause to approach you again.” She said instead of a good-bye, turning to leave.

He could only nod.

And think. And because he could only think about one thing at the time, he suddenly remembered her exact words and knew that he found a loophole.

“Hey! Wait! You said you can pretend I’m part of the wildlife. And that animals eat plants too, so that’s fine. Can’t I be part of the wildlife that eats meat? Like, you know, a predator?” he said, with hope clearly audible in his voice.

She turned to him, with an irked expression.

“I’m the only predator in this forest.”

And melted away amidst the trees.