Gar sat by a fire contemplating what had happened. He had killed the ant without any real risk to himself and taking no harm, Bodger had taken some damage which had been easily fixed by pumping in some mana into it through there connection. He had had a fight and with Bodger by his side came out on top. If his traps where a success he would have even more help soon, all that put Gar in a good mood so he decided to experiment a bit with cooking. He took some thorn berries in a pan mashed them a bit then set it over the fire giving it a bit of time to boil and reduce down, once he had a thick sticky mess he seared a few of the larger strips of meat in the frying pan before pouring the berries over the top.

  “Cooking levelled up cooking level 4”

  Gar sat leaning back against the cliff slowly eating his meal, it wasn’t good the flavours where just all wrong, he slowly ate it anyway it was different so that was enough for him then eating some nuts and berries until he was stuffed, despite its taste it was the best meal he had eaten since coming to this world content just to let his mind wonder as he watched the fire burn. He came back to himself as the fire burned down to embers it had been hours, it was fully dark, his dark vision let him see normally, that wasn’t what alerted him though. There was a disturbance in the forest a noise he had not heard before, he moved closer to the edge trying to make anything out and work out what was going on. The disturbance continued and it worried him he was unsure what was happening, until he got an answer.

  “You have killed a level 4 Badger 12 experience awarded”

  This was swiftly followed by another message.

  “Level up you are now level 3”

  “As a Gargoyle you gain 1 point to constitution, 1 point to strength and 1 point to perception, along with 3 free attribute points per level up. You may also choose a skill to advance a level”

  It was the badgers causing the disturbance and it didn’t sound like it was over waiting a while proved that right as there were two more messages.

  “You have killed a level 3 badger 7 experience awarded”

  “You have killed a level 4 badger 9 experience awarded”

  Not to long after that message things seemed to quiet down Gar was tempted to go have a look right then and to collect the bodies, instead he crawled into bed he didn’t fall asleep easily and when he did it was restless.

  Gar awoke with the sun, crawled out bleary eyed and still tired, he wanted to just go back to sleep. Instead he built a fire and made some tea, mentally collecting new pine needles was added to Gars to do list as all his where browning and dead. A quick breakfast and Gar was off to collect his badgers, he had his empty rucksack on his back, spear in hand and Bodger at his heels. Gar moved swiftly through the forest until he was close to the badger sett. He approached cautiously, this time bringing Bodger with him. He saw the three bodies all on the river side of the sett snares round their necks. He did a full loop round the sett checking all the snares before approaching; there were no other badgers in sight and nothing else either. Still being cautious Gar sent Bodger to nudge each body just to check they were actually dead. They were so Gar had Bodger stand watch while he collected the bodies and gathered his snares.

  “Traps levelled up traps level 5”

  A welcome reward for a job well done even if it was anticlimactic, with two of the bodies in his rucksack and one slung over his shoulder, Gar walked back with a smile on his face, he had been fit in his old body but he doubted he could have easily walked around with this much weight on his back. Between the three bodies and Bodger it took two trips up the ladder.

  Once everything was up Gar set to the messy task of preparing the bodies it was going to take most of the day to get through the three. By late afternoon he was done, a mess but done. He had separated the Furs and had them laid out, the organs had been removed and thrown over the edge to his rubbish pile, the bones had been cleaned off and sat in three separate piles, while the meat had been sliced thinly and hung on racks to dry, except for two of the largest slabs he could cut off which he was saving for dinner. He had also taken the extra step of collecting all the fat he cut off into one of his pans, he hoped he could clean it up and use it to improve his cooking, he wasn’t sure where that idea came from but suspected it was a hint from his cooking skill. All the rest of the gristle and tendons where dropped over the edge.

  Gar was happy not to do much else that day, he sat next to his fire with one of his pans full of the fat slowly heating, the smell of the fat in the pan was heavenly it made his mouth water and his heart race. Once all the fat was liquid and had boiled for a while he used the lid to let the liquid fat drain out and keep all the little bits of meat and gristle that had gone in with the fat, keeping it all in the pan. The fat in his other pan, snacking on the little bits of meat, it hadn’t been his plan to eat them they just smelt too good to resist. He put a generous helping of the fat into the frying pan then fried up his slabs of fresh badger meat, Gar didn’t think he would ever be a fan of eating badger if he had to fried in fat was a much better way of doing it, a few sliced axen pods were also chucked in to fry alongside the meat and it smelt great. Gar went a little wild cooking thing’s in fat frying them up to see how they taste. He went to sleep that night full and satisfied.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  In the early hours of the morning before dawn Gar was woken up something Gar hadn’t thought about had happened. It was raining. The weather up until that point had been so consistent he hadn’t thought about it, this had brought it to the forefront of his mind. Fortunately his shelter seemed to be holding up and water tight with only a little damp area near the ends. He had dashed out into the rain grabbing things he had left out all over the place and thrown them into his shelter; first his tools and equipment, then his supplies nuts, pods, berries, the slumbering vine fibres all into his shelter. He wanted to try and save his meat but it was soaked and he had no way to store it, it was only going to bring bugs and disease in to his shelter if he took it of the racks and bundled it up, so with regret he left it where it was. The last thing he brought in was the three piles of bones. If he could have gotten it before the rain started he would have brought in some wood as well, to make a fire once the rain stopped, he was too late though all his wood was soaked, so was he. He retreated into his shelter Bodger followed after; it was cramped inside with all his stuff, still Gar was able to find a comfortable position to sit. Looking outside at the rain that was still hammering down Gar figured he was going to be there awhile so got comfortable as he could and started on something to keep him busy.

  He cast his spell skeletal puppet for the first time. It required just an act of will to activate then the process sort of took over a new string of death mana was drawn from the skull through his core then out through his fingertip and back into the skull that was sat on top of the pile of bones he was pointing at. So much more convenient not even having to touch the bones, simpler and easier not requiring Gars full concentration, it did however still take time. Gar didn’t mind though he had time to kill and without having to use all his concentration on guiding the process he enjoyed watching the mana flow. Hours passed magic flowing until the spell completed.

  “Skeletal puppet levelled up skeletal puppet level 2”

  In front of him stood another skeletal puppet badger looking much the same as Bodger a quick inspect revealed it to be basically identical.

  Skeletal puppet badger

  The skeleton of a badger animated by Gar through the use of the basic death magic spell skeletal puppet, improved by the self-taught arcana achievement, slightly smarter and tougher than normal.

  Uses: Puppet

  Quality: Great

  Rarity: Common

  Durability: 200/200

  A few basic commands and Gar was happy the new skeleton was just as quick and responsive as Bodger which made him happy. Knowing he needed to distinguish his skeletons when giving commands Gar had to think of something to call this new one, the problem was twofold first he sucked with names and to keep coming up with new ones was hard. The second names meant he got attached he had realised that with Bodger he wanted these to be his guards his protectors to do the dangerous things so he didn’t have to, but if he was honest he wasn’t sure if he could send Bodger into a situation where he might lose him even taking risks to avoid that. He needed to avoid that with the new skeletons, still needing to refer to it as something Gar kept it simple it would be badger one or B1 for short. B1 was sent outside to give some more space in the shelter, Gar looked at Bodger curled up next to him in the cramped space, he thought about sending it out as well to open up more space, he couldn’t bring himself to do it despite knowing the rain would do the skeleton no harm. With that done Gar had one more thing to check before raising another skeleton. With a simple thought he brought up a shortened status page leaving off abilities and skills so just showing his stats

  Status

  Race: Gargoyle

  Name: Gar

  Level: 3

  Experience to next level 21/225

  Health: 155/155

  Stamina: 155/155

  Mana: 72/72

  Constitution: 13        Endurance: 12

  Strength: 15          Agility: 6

  Dexterity: 6         Willpower: 11 (10)

  Wisdom: 7          Intelligence: 7

  Charisma: 3         Perception: 10

  Luck: 5

  Free attribute points: 6

  Gar was happy seeing his numbers going up, but was confused as well he thought the (10) next to his will power of 11 was because Bodger was using one point of willpower with B1 as well he had expected to go to (9) that wasn’t the case. It was a good thing he supposed it was also a bit disappointing because he thought he was starting to understand this system and this just proved it was still a mystery to him, with nothing he could do about it and no other information on it he closed the status and pulled the next pile of bones in front of himself. It got dark early that night what with the clouds and the rain, in his little shelter Gar barely noticed as he finished off his final skeletal puppet.

  “Skeletal puppet levelled up skeletal puppet level 3”

  “Death magic levelled up death magic level 4”

  Happy with his increases Gar threw his latest puppet a quick inspect. Giving back identical results to the previous badger skeletons. Calling the others back in from outside he had all his badgers line up in front of him he had Bodger, B1, B2 and B3 all of them looked the same. Gar wanted to say that Bodger looked slightly different and he could tell the difference, that Bodger was special. In truth though he couldn’t tell they were identical, which in and of itself was a bit weird, Gar was sure the badgers he had killed where not all the same size, his only guess was that the spell standardised them in some way. Gar wasn’t going to worry about it too much it was just one of hundreds of questions he had. Despite the rain he sent his new skeletons out of his shelter B1 and B2 to guard the entrance and B3 to go round and guard the other end it wasn’t necessary up on his shelf but it made him feel a little bit safer and he needed the space in his cramped little shelter, with that he found space too curl up, Bodger next to him and fell asleep