Hours later he was sat on the riverbank with his feet in the water taking a break, he had gotten used to walking around with no shoes on, and it wasn’t bad the skin on his feet seemed tough and resistant to most things he stepped on. However he had learnt that it was the squishing of things and squelching between his toes that was the true downside of bare foot, he had been nearing the river and a fallen tree was blocking his path as he hopped over his foot had went through a particularly rotten part and he had squashed a massive grub

  “You have killed a level 1 rot grub 1 experience awarded”

  The thing basically popped as his foot touched it and his foot was left in a puddle of unthinkable squishy mess, which is what led to him sitting with his feet in the water. He had long since scrubbed his foot clean of the mess but was trying to let his body relax and let his mind forget the disgusting sensations. As he sat and watched the sun reflect of the water he was noticing occasional splashes and shimmers of light, there where fish grabbing insects off the surface, it gave him an idea he hadn’t been utilizing this food source.

  He left his bag on the bank and jogged back to the fallen tree steeled himself for what he was going to do then he stuck his hand into the remains of the grub and scooped up as much as he could, it was then back to the river. He moved along the river’s edge trying to find a perfect spot, he was looking for somewhere the water still had some depth but was very still he found an ideal looking area sheltered from the current by a bulge in the bank, he laid down and extended his handful of mushed grub into the water and held it there, much of the grub mess floated off he could see it leaving an oily film on the water as it went that would only help his plan hopefully there was still bits of grub sat in his hand. He laid there and waited he didn’t know how long he waited but his body was uncomfortable and his arm was hurting from being held out for so long, still he held still and waited his patients was rewarded when he caught sight of a fish seemingly following the slow moving oil slick towards him. It got close enough that if he stretched out he could reach it, still he watched it get closer and closer until it took a lump of grub from his hand at that moment he jerked his hand underneath it, flicking his arm up and practically throwing it into the forest activating observe Gar went and found his fish, it was still alive.

  “Brown trout level 3”

  “You have killed a level 3 brown trout 3 experience awarded”

  Quick action with his knife finished the struggling fish, he then split it down the middle, pulled the guts out and chucked them back in the river, fortunately his dad had taken him fishing as a kid it wasn’t really for him but he did know how to deal with a fish. Figuring it was best eaten fresh Gar decided to stop for a late lunch, he built himself a small fire, butterflied the fish used some sticks to keep it spread and another to hold it over the fire. It didn’t take long over the heat of the flames and the fish was cooked, Gar realised the moment the fish hit his tongue what he had been missing out on. The fish was a little burnt but was still the best food he had eaten since he had come to this world, he had intended to savour the food but he practically inhaled the food unable to resist the delicious flavour, it was at that point fishing was moved up his priority list. The remains of the fish and the fire where all dumped unceremoniously into the river, followed by a quick wash and a long drink to end his break. With his meal over Gar hoisted his bag onto his back and continued his exploration, he still saw a few axen trees here and there but they were getting less and less regular he still made note of where they were as he was getting closer and closer to base.

  In high spirits after what he had found so far and expecting the forest exploration to be done by night fall, Gar was moving lightly when he saw something that he wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not, he was getting close to base by now maybe a twenty minute journey if he went in a straight line. The first of what this represented had been his biggest windfall in a supply of food, in front of him was a badger sett and it was a big one as well. This was useful, what should he do? Did he need to do anything? Whatever he was going to do about it he knew it wouldn’t be done right then, he made mental note of where it was and moved on going round the sett carefully.

  Every time he was getting to the river there were some of the thorn berries, he had been seeing so many he didn’t bother to gather any until he was much closer to base, figuring he was close enough but still gathering from further away than where he normally picked thorn berries. As he filled a bag with thorn berries the idea came to mind about transferring an entire bush still live up on his ledge, if he could make it work it could be an easy longer term food source as long as the berries were still growing, he considered it but wasn’t sure he was going to be here long enough to need it in fact he sincerely hoped it wouldn’t be. Musing done and berry gathered he went back to his zigzag path, when he next reached the river again he saw something he had kind of been hopping to see a willow tree, he knew you could weave the branches into baskets and all sorts of things, so with his knife he collected a large bundle of the long flexible branches, they were too big to fit in his bag so he tied the bundle with a bit of rope and carried it on his shoulder. He was starting to get tired by this point it had been a long day of walking and he was now carrying a lot, even so he pushed on back and forth determined to finish his exploration that day so he could move on to other things, it had been useful and profitable but he still did not like being away from his base like this he felt too exposed.

  He finished his exploration with about an hour before dark and he was tired, not the same tired as the previous day of emptying and refilling his stamina but a tiredness born of continuous walking and stress of danger. He didn’t feel like starting a fire so after dropping his burdens he ate a cold dinner of the nettles and some dried meat drinking the nettle water. To complete his day he took a coal from the fire pit went over to the wall where he had started his map and added to it. He added the rough shape and size of the forest relative to his platform; he made sure to mark on the rough location of the cluster of axen trees and the few closer to him, as well as the badger sett and the willow tree. A note was also added of the nettles at the far end of the forest and the thorn berry bushes by the river, it added a lot to his previously small map and gained him a new skill

  “New skill acquired cartography level 1”

  With that all added while it was still fresh in his memory Gar was out of things to do that day so crawled into bed.

  Another day with lots to do; to start he needed to check his snares, he had forgotten to do it yesterday and they weren’t catching anything it might be time to take them down and try elsewhere. He still had a bit of water in his barrel but figured as he was going to the river he would collect some more water anyway more wouldn’t hurt, with bucket and spear in hand he set off, first stop was at the axen tree, for the first time he had the courage to look around. It had been trashed he was able to find a number of bits of wire from his snares though so he gathered them up and put them in his pocket but there was nothing else he could gain from what he saw. At the river he decided as his snares had caught nothing since catching the badger it was time to take them down and he would try again once he had found a better location, a bucket of water from the river and it was back to base.

  His morning chores done he ate some nuts and berries for breakfast while deciding what to do for the day, there was a glaringly obvious task that needed doing, the processing of the slumbering vine it had just sat where he dumped it when he got it back, it was in the way and a trip hazard there and to make use of it he would need to process it in some way. He dragged it into the middle of his area to give himself some space as he decided what to do with it. He took a big knife and chopped all the thinner green vines off as close to the main body as he could, they got piled to one side it was quite a pile as those vines made up much of the things mass, next the thicker, thorny vines where cut off and put in another separate pile. All that was left at this point was the sweet smelling fluid filled sack and the fleshy green mass that sat behind the sack, Gar worked the long knife along behind the sack carefully cutting it away from the mass, he was unsure about the mass he couldn’t see an immediate use for it. He ended up cutting it open to see if there was anything else of note or use inside, starting where his spear had opened it he lengthened the cut, it struck Gar as odd how little of the sap was in this part it was just large amounts of plant flesh, he made several more cuts to open up the mass finding nothing of interest, until he got to what seemed to be a separate pocket near its top, inside he found four hard brown thumbnail sized objects as well as several more white softer versions, he plucked out the harder ones and inspected it.

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  Slumbering vine seed

  The seed of a slumbering vine from this a new slumbering vine can grow, the plant develops one per level.

  Uses: ingredient, seed

  Value: ????

  Quality: fine

  Rarity: Scarce

  Durability 75/75

  They were seeds the other three returned identical results. He figured the smaller white lumps must be forming new seeds, if the biggest one was anything to go by the slumbering vine had been nearly level five. There was nothing else that caught his interest in the green mass so he hauled it over to the edge and dropped it in his waste pile. The plant sack sat about waist high from the ground, it reminded Gar of a pitcher plant except larger and wider with a broad leaf that could cover the top, he had left attached when separating the sack. The sack was a lot tougher than he had expected taking quite a bit of abuse in the process of getting it here and never splitting or leaking, it was smooth to the touch feeling somewhere between rubber and leather with a thick waxy coating that got on his hands as he touched and moved it, the liquid inside was a translucent pink colour for some reason making him think water melon, it smelt incredibly sweet and appetising similar to the sap but not the same, he inspected it

  Slumbering vine digestion sack

  A sack containing a sedative and strong acid in which a slumbering vine digests its prey

  Uses; material, cloth

  Value:????

  Quality: Good

  Rarity: scarce

  Durability: 83/100

  “Inspect levelled up inspect level 3”

  It appeared it was taking some damage from its rough treatment as it had lost some durability. He defiantly shouldn’t taste the liquid as it was most defiantly a sedative and acid, realising he didn’t have to just assume Gar lifted the leaf lid stuck his head over the top so he could see the liquid and inspected it

  Slumbering vine digestive acid

  A strong acid used by a slumbering vine to digest its prey, it is also a sedative to keep its prey asleep during the process.

  Uses: ingredient, weapon

  Value:????

  Quality: good

  Rarity: Scarce

  Durability: 50/50

  Yes it was defiantly an acid, he didn’t get how it could also put you to sleep but he wasn’t going to try testing it to find out. With no current use for it and not wanting the sack to get damaged and leak acid everywhere Gar carried it over to an unused section of the cenote wall and placed the sack against it, it sounded useful he just wasn’t quite sure for what yet.

  With that done he moved over to the thin green vines, he had thirty seven of the things, each between thirty and fifty meters long. There were two main things he wanted from them, the sap inside and the long fibres that made them up, the sap was coming already leaking out the cut end and more came out when the vine was squeezed. Before he could do anything with it he needed a container, he couldn’t use his pans as they where needed for cooking, the bucket was also out as he only had one and he needed it to fetch water, the only thing left was his large log water barrel. He had spent so long making it to have a good water store that he was reluctant to give it up, however he knew if he wanted to keep the sap it was his best choice, he would have to make another one for water. Accepting he would have to last the few days it would take to make a new one, just collecting water each day as he had done it before. Not seeing a reason to wait he made sure his containers, pans and bucket where full of water then tipped over his water barrel, he would have preferred to have moved it and tipped the water off the edge of his ledge but the barrel was heavy enough empty, with water in it that wasn’t going to happen. With the barrel as dry as he could get it and knowing he probably wasn’t moving it again once it was full Gar set it up again against the back wall.

  He then brought a bundle of the vines over and put them down next to the barrel as he worked out how to drain the vines of the sap. It took some trial and error to find a good method of draining the sap while keeping the fibres, it was a mix of squeezing and rolling from the far end of the vine towards the cut end, it felt like emptying a very large tube of tooth paste. The first vine took over twenty minutes to squeeze dry, fortunately with a successful method and lots of practice he was able to speed up, with the amount he had to go through it was still late afternoon before he finished. Gar was happy with the results he had over half his barrel full of the sap, figuring he should get a better idea of what it was and doing so would help train the skill, Gar inspected the sap.

  Slumbering vine sap

  A sweet smelling sedative used to lure in the slumbering vines prey

  Uses: Ingredient, sedative

  Value:????

  Quality: Good

  Rarity: Scarce

  Durability: 132/132

  The results were pretty much what Gar had suspected although it was always good to have things confirmed and every little helped when working his skills. With no current use for the sap the lid was put on the barrel and Gar turned his attention to the vines themselves. He knew they were very fibrous and he wanted the long fibres, he was very much hoping he could use them to make some more rope, if he had to climb out of here he would need a lot more rope, and that isn’t even mentioning the hundreds of other uses for rope. Realising that to make any use out of them he was going to have to separate them from the flesh of the vine.

  He settled on crushing as it would damage the flesh while leaving the fibres intact, his earlier squeezing of the sap had already started the process in some places. He made himself comfortable on the cleared ground near his fire pit sat with his back against the cliff wall. He had a vine in front of him and a smooth fist sized rock in his hand, Gar brought the rock down on the vine and rolled it a bit mashing the flash to a pulp while leaving the fibres relatively intact, he would then run the thin tips of his fingers through the mess, removing what pulp he could before moving the vine along and repeated for the next section. It didn’t take doing more than a couple of meters before he realised how much work it was going to take, with no other alternative he continued at it as he felt it was worth the time. For the first time he felt he was actually working on something to get him out of here, rope would be the first step in that process and this was the very first step of getting rope so he worked with a smile on his face.

  At some point in the process it had become mechanical and he had stopped paying attention to what he was doing, just letting his mind wonder. It was dark when he came back to himself as he was just finishing off his second vine, only thirty five left to do he thought, he gathered the two slightly pulpy bundles of fibres and laid them in a spot that should get some sun for them to dry out. He turned back to his fire pit before turning again back to the bundles of fibres, bending and placing a couple of rocks on them, he didn’t want to lose his hard work to the wind. He lit a fire and sat to enjoy a dinner of dried meat and berries, he had been eating the meat freely and there was not loads left, he knew he should think about hunting some more soon or perhaps a fishing trip he had enjoyed that last fish. Spreading the coals to help the fire die he crawled into his shelter to sleep, as he dreamed dreams of fresh meat and fish.