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After subsisting with morning dew, the meat of the herbivore, and stubborn willpower for weeks, I now knew how the herbivore survived. They eat the well-camouflaged plants and roots found down here, and drink from hidden wellspring in the center of their territory.
“Incidentally, They also dig a sprawling network of caves, tunnels, and underground passages on the cliffside. Can’t get out through that place. Above the ground, I could fend them off and run away, but it’s different circumstances altogether in the tunnel.”
“With how small some of the tunnels could be, even walking normally is difficult. In other games, I could pick a tunnel and clear the monster one by one, making use of the small space. In this game, aggro didn’t suddenly disappear, corpse pile up and I could be ganked from behind too. These beast are smart and can call for reinforcement. I almost died from zerg rush herbivore stampede.” |
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| “I found out why this rift valley is giving me a Deja Vu. Valley full of gem that was out of the people’s reach, big bird, and herbivore that lived in the valley being terrorized by the bird. Even the corpse is not spared, even though the bird didn’t look like a vulture. This is quite familiar. People throwing piles of meat down the valley, a humongous bird taking the dropped down meat, and the people who threw away the meat rummaging for gems among the humongous bird’s dropping. This scenario is ripped off straight from Sinbad adventure.” |
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| “I’m almost ready to get out of this place now. It is with great reluctance that I emptied my gem’s space out of any less than useful things. I can’t bear to just threw them away, so I buried them in a hidden place, together with some of the gem I couldn’t fit in. I also took an effort to hide away the trace of the precious stone found in this place. I actually don’t mind people coming here, but I don’t want anybody digging out my stash.” |
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"The feeding cycle of the bird was eating the valley’s herbivore two times a day, one for each consumption. If there were two prey, one alive and one dead, it would prioritize the dead one. It would eat the dead one and carry the crippled but still breathing victim away. It wouldn’t be back until the next day. If there are three, it would eat, carry one away, and come back for the last one after depositing the second prey.
I guess I would get out of this rift valley using humongous bird flight service. But if the place where the bird deposits its food had another of its kind, I wouldn’t be able to get away. It would be faster to just give up and make a new avatar." |
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"I think this bird lives a solitary life, and carrying the prey back is for its own convenience, not to feed its chick or something. I’m 70 % sure. It’s time to take the risk instead of being paralyzed by fear and live a Robinson Crusoe life in this place."
"I would place three herbivores and hope the one I hide under is the first one it carried away. It would then flew away to fetch the last one, and I would use that chance to get away from the bird’s nest." |
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Fourth try. The first and third tries end up with the herbivore I hide under as the one left. I hope this time my hiding place is the first one it pick off. I won’t have a chance to get away from its nest otherwise.
The second tries ended with me falling to my death, again. This time I made a handhold from a rope tied up to the herbivore’s limb. At the second try, the rope that I tied to the herbivore’s torso snapped when the birds swooped down and use its sharp claw to carry the herbivore off the ground. I only found out when the bird relaxed it’s leg halfway and the cut off rope loosened from the herbivore’s body. |
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| “It turns out that the bird had the nest full of blind chick. Is this bird a penguin or something? I thought the only kind of bird that feeds their young by puking is the clawless kind of bird. How misleading. It’s fortunate that the bird departed as soon as the herbivore struck the ground because the blind chicks could tell that I was there. I wriggled and crawled to a hidden corner and use the healing rite as soon as I could. I had to heal the bone that broke when the herbivore I hide under was thrown to the ground before I could consider walking away.” |
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| “When I was riding in the humongous bird ‘flight service’, I had a sudden fear that the bird’s nest was somewhere unconnected to the cliff I fell from. I am fortunate that the only complication in my escape plan was the existence of the bird’s offspring. Now I am walking down the peak where it made a nest in." |
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The journey back was okay-ish. Most of my belonging left above the cliff was still there, untouched. I didn’t need to spend too much time seeking one or two things that were gone. After slaying the small animals and monsters that took away some of my things, I walked to the direction of the city I came from.
I am here now, four weeks later. I’m amazed that it only took me half the time of my original journey. Now it’s time to find out what kind of loadout I should use. I think I should get mining skills at the very least. I should make sure first that the knowledge in making a tunnel is included in the skill package. |
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Finn took off the VR device and walked to the terminal. He connected to the internet and check for mail and other important things before opening the game’s forum. After making sure that he is in the correct sub-forum, he made a new thread with the title of ‘Tunneler’.
HuckFinn: I’m going to respec my avatar, can anybody give a recommendation on what skill had the knowledge in making a tunnel included? Also what skill loadout would give me the best survival odds in fighting against the tunnel inhabitant?
After posting the question and waiting for an answer for a while, he walked off to the kitchen and made some food. There were people viewing his thread, and the reply was trickling in slowly, but so far it’s only useless post instead of the answer he sought. After the food is ready, he came back to the terminal to view the reply.
Underdog: Is it mole people?
Guer: Woah, is this a remade of the dweller of the deep?
HappyMurderHobo: Party with me! Let me get a share of the treasure!
ImanExpert: Make a thief build and sneak everywhere! Monsters can’t kill what they can’t detect!
Correctfaxx: Dweller of the deep is a shit movie.
Jackie22: Where do you want to make a tunnel? Tunneling in city and area around it need permits, or you would get fined or worse, jailed.
HuckFinn: They are sheep sized ferocious animals, they are a herbivore though. The amount is quite a lot, and I almost died before from being swarmed. I’m far away from the city when I met them. They tunnel underground and made cave networks deep underground, and I planned to make my own tunnel to ambush them back.
AngoraFront : Mining had a knowledge of the variety of ore and other earth’s boon, how to mine them, how to find ore vein, which place do you start to dig, how to safely make a tunnel to reach the vein you seek and how to maintain your tunnel so it won’t collapse and bury you alive. I recommend that you get the highest mining level you could get.
Yooga: Make a stealth archer build! Stealth archer is the best at surviving!
Aberfroth: How ferocious is a herbivore? Did you get cuddled to death?
ImanExpert: why the hell are you recommending archer for? He’s digging tunnels. Not hunting in overworld...
Jackie22: I think AngoraFront and ImanExpert rec had some merit. Use mining skill to tunnels, and sneak away every time you get overwhelmed by the monsters.
Yooga: Stealth archer is the best build for every occasion, you know? With the highest level of stealth, lack of space is not a problem! You could just stealth and arrow them up close, just stick em up their ass!
Hama: Yooga, I think you had a problem. I could give you a mental health doctor’s address...
Finn scrolled down to read all posts one by one while shoveling the food into his mouth. after a while, he sat back and made a choice of what kind of skill loadout he would make.
‘I’m going to make an adventurer (thief version) with focus on stealth and sneaking, and get mining skills along with the necessary tools.’
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“I went for the skill tutor to respec right after I walked through the city’s gate, nut it turns out that they are not there. It looked like it’s their day of rest. I’m very sure that the skill tutor is just an NPC, so why did he even need day of rest like the players?”
“Rather than loitering around waiting for the skill tutor to be ‘online’ I went for the equipment shop to change my look. It actually doesn’t affect anything, but sneaking around is not complete when you don’t wear a hooded cloak.”
I got the cloak, the leather jerkin, the awesome belt and complete sets of dagger and knife. It looks good and mysterious. Awesome. I actually spent some time to pose in front of the mirror.” |
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| “I tried to sell some of the gems I got, but the social suite is telling me that I was being ripped off by this guy, so I canceled the trade. After quite some time in deliberation, I went to the temple to open the legacy option and keep all my precious stones inside. It was very expensive and most of my money was gone, but now I would have fixed storage for things that I want to keep, and it would still be accessible even if I had to make a new avatar.” |
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“The skill tutor is finally ‘online’. I go for the thief package set first; the stealth, the dagger mastery, acrobatic, and the other before getting the mining set. It looked like I don’t have the upkeep for the highest level mining package, so I just go for the tunnel related knowledge and digging skill.” |
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“I forgot to buy mining tools, so I ran back to the city. I thought I had already bought all that I need for the trip, I even doubled the amount of ration and water I carried. To think that I would forget the necessary tools for mining. I hope the leftover from all my shopping trip before was enough.
I sold all the loot I got, even the three-legged wolf fur, but I still don’t have enough money to be properly equipped for my build. It’s enough but I still lack some bits and bobs. I guess it’s fine... after all, I survived weeks outside in the previous trip, even though I was unprepared and lacking the necessary knowledge for wilderness survival before.” |
