Chapter 5.

     I woke with the fading light of the sun flickering through the trees. My body hurt all over, and I was starving. I rolled onto my back and summoned nutritious water in the air and gulped down the stream I let fall into my mouth.

    After long minutes of drinking, I began to finally feel better. The pain lessened. “Well, I guess it’s one of those leveling systems. Where you must have the energy and calories to make the transition happen. Fuck, that was dumb. Could have killed myself by leveling. Wouldn’t that be great? I haven’t even gotten laid in my new body yet. I even thought I was being careful. Ok, only one or two points at a time.” I chastised myself out loud to try and have a deeper impact. 

    “I could have been eaten while I was passed out. Stupid, stupid, and more stupid. Got to be more careful.” I said as I sat up and got to my feet. The steel fur bear was still impaled right in front of me. It had the look of being dead for a few hours. 

    ‘Right time to do some harvesting.’ I thought as I used the analyze body spell on the bear. Once I could firmly see all its parts, I combined the spell with air blades. I guided the blades and quickly began dismantling the bear. [You have learned the spell butcher: Base cost: initial cast 10 mana, 1 mana per pound per second. Level 1.] I felt the completed new spell take hold, and the bear fell away into neat piles. The hide, claws, and fangs. Then the meat and bones. Then arrayed were the organs, tendons, and the beast core. The blood hovered in the air for a second as if it were looking for a jar to be placed in before lowering to the sand.

    I looked at the piles for a second before I shrugged and collected the items. The claws and fangs easily went into my bag along with the beast core. Well, the golf ball rock-sized gem thing I saw get torn out of its brain, whatever it was.

I wrapped the bones in the bolt of cloth. I could feel the weight of them. They had the cool, sleek texture of polished metal, and I figured they had to be some form of steel. The great thing about wrapping them in the bolt of cloth is the cloth was light, and when I had the several hundred pounds of bones wrapped, the cloth made them lighter as well. I could easily hoist the now oversized roll on my shoulder. With the bones, I also didn’t feel like I was going to drift away. 

I took all of the tendons as well, figuring they would make great crafting components in the future; they had the look of weird flexible cables. The organs, however, did not look appealing, and neither did the meat. It must have sat too long. 

    That left the hide. It was remarkably clean, and I folded it and hung it from my shoulders. The fur was sharp and pointy, but just like the bones, it was all some form of metal; I guessed it was steel. It would make some cool armor. “At least I should be able to sell it. Time to move off and make a place to camp. That leveling debacle wiped me out.” I said.

     I resumed my swift pace down the river, far more wary of my surroundings. I stopped twice to drink more of the summoned nutritious water and each time felt my strength return. I had been far more famished than I had initially thought. 

    I was about a hundred or so yards from where the smaller river joined with the much more massive river when I decided to stop for the night. The sun was just touching the far horizon when I decided to make my little home for the night.

    Using the create stone ability, I made a small-A-frame house. The walls were set at seven feet high and four feet thick. The roof was the same thickness. The two angled slabs joined with the ground and the peak with a steep angle. The foundation of the house was six feet thick. The inside was twenty feet by twenty feet, with a large fireplace and chimney on the back wall. I closed the front except for an opening for a door.

    “Hum, door. What to do about a door? Hinges… Yes… Bar lock… swing inward… And metal, just shall we say four inches of some mild steel. Yes, then some high tungsten steel for the hinges and bar lock.” I pondered my first true puzzle with the building of the hut. I created the aforementioned pieces, and with my command of magic, they easily fit into place. Magical welding was way easier than what I did before. 

    I walked into the hut and shut the door behind me. It was dark, and that would just not do. I waved my hand at the far wall, and fire sprang to life in the fireplace. [You have learned the spell: Campfire: base cost: Error… .1 mana per minute, fire must be in a hearth or pit. Level 1.] The soft, warm light filled the darkroom. The heat from the fire began to make the hut warm and comfortable. The hut was sealed from the outside, almost airtight. ‘That won’t do. Don’t want to suffocate.’ I thought.

    I created a small opening at the top of the hut near the peak of the roof and set a crisscrossing maze of stone bars through the opening. A soft cool breeze flowed down from the roof and toward the fire. I created a large chair in front of the fire and a bed along the far wall. They were all made of stone, but when I placed the bear hide over the chair, metal fur side down, and sat, it offered a surprising amount of support and comfort.

    I sat and sipped nutritious water, more like nutritious slime summoned from the air. I was getting better at conjuring it, so it was like drinking from a glass. Staring into the fire. Letting my mind fade and relax. Sure, I had driven through a crack in the world. Just seeming to slip from existence. I had to claw my way through the primal chaos of the universes. But truly, it did not turn out so bad. I claimed some powerful magics by the look of things; I was on a new world. And magic, fucking magic. “Ah, right at home,” I said as the last of the tension left my body as I sent a soft pulse of healing magic through me.

    I could feel the mental fatigue building up; I needed to sleep. I wanted to sleep. So, I stood from the chair by the fire and went over to the bed I had made from stone. I laid the hide down on the stone and curled up in it.

    Laying down, I figured I was not going to be able to naturally fall asleep. So once again, it was time for a little bit of magic. Using the analyze bodies for life on the mechanism in the brain that instigated sleep. Using a touch of manna and a command, I set the spell to send me into a restful sleep for eight hours. My mind faded to black; the last thing I heard was the soft whispering female voice saying [You have learned the spell: Sleep: base cost: 12.75 mana on willing target, mana amount varies. Level 1.]