“How much can you lift” he said looking at Bodger. He was going to find out. Gar fashioned a harness for Bodger and hung him from one of the trees on his platform. He emptied his back pack finding the things from the abandoned dwarven settlement that he still hadn’t taken out he put them to one side to look at later. He put the straps of the bag in Bodgers mouth then started adding stones to the bag. The more stones he added the more confident he got that his idea would work. It reached a point where Gar started to feel a pull on his mana and realised Bodger was starting to take damage but as an unthinking puppet would still hold on until told to let go. Gar quickly backed off removed a few stones until the pull stopped, he checked Bodger over and he seemed okay. He then removed a few more stones just to be safe, he then had Bodger let go and he hefted the bag feeling its weight. It wasn’t too bad his idea would work even if it would take a few trips.
Gar went through all his stuff bundling anything he was going to bring with him into piles, each pile weighed less than the bag of rocks. It was a slow process as things kept needing to be moved and removed to balance the weight so no one pile was too big or too heavy. With smaller things it took even longer. Such as the slumbering vine thorns as he didn’t want to leave them behind because they were strong and barbed simply making great fishing hooks was a good enough reason to keep them if he could. To be able to bring them he needed a sealed container to keep them together. He had been using a piece of carapace as a bowel for them so what he did was moulding that piece round creating a rough sealed sphere with the thorns inside.
Things like his barrels were going to be left behind they were simply too large to bring. That did leave him with the problem of the slumbering vine sap he would have loved to bring it all with him except the properties that made it so useful also made it dangerous. Gar had seen how animals were attracted to it and drawing things to him as he travelled was not what he wanted, leaving it behind was disappointing although it did present an opportunity to make his climb and importantly the badgers while he climbed much safer. He was going to be able to take the slumbering vine digestive sack as it was within his weight limit and did not seem to have the same attraction properties as the sap especially if the lid was kept closed. It took some time and several worker ant carapace parts to jury rig a harness for the sac.
He started bundling the piles together using rope and carapace pieces to secure them and adding a handle the badgers could grab, and then he flattened the other carapace pieces he didn’t use to make them easier to transport. A few things had been left out to be bundled later so he could use them in the meantime.
One of the things he had left out was the box he had gotten from the dwarven settlement. It was a small chest that seemed to be made of some kind of wood. He could see the patterns and grain in it, except it sounded like stone when he tapped his knuckle against it. A dark brown colour with the faintest hint of red or purple in there, silver detailing all over it with a perfectly smooth blood red stone set right where a lock would be. Gar tried opening it but it would not budge, he tried working the point of his finger into the crack between lid and box. That got him nowhere despite how sharp a point his fingers came to, he could find no purchase it was almost like there was no crack and it was painted on. He looked for a hidden latch or button pushing and pulling on every bit of the chest. He almost wanted to smash it open except the box looked too ornate and that it might have been valuable and as there might not even be anything inside it as when he gave it a shake he couldn’t hear anything, it made ruining its value by breaking it not seem worth it. Finally he stopped playing about and bundled it up with the rest of his stuff to take with him.
With most of his stuff ready Gar settled down for the evening. He lit a large fire and started cooking. That night he had thorn berries, axen nuts and pods cooked every way he could think of roasted, fried, and boiled. It wasn’t the best eating what it was, was pure indulgence doing things however he felt at the time and eating the excess not worrying about what tomorrow would bring. He was so close to getting out of that hole and having a chance to see the world that he could either sit there and stress and fuss over every little detail that he couldn’t change despite having already planned and thought through everything multiple times or he could sit back and relax while he still had a chance. Despite his recent encounters his camp was still the safest place to let his guard down that he had found and he was going to be leaving it he didn’t know when he would feel this safe again so relax is what he did. Once he had eaten so much he felt ready to burst he laid back and did something he had not done enough of, he activated mana sight and watched the night sky. It was as beautiful and as mesmerising as the first time he did it, he promised himself that he would do it more often as he drifted off to sleep next to his fire.
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Gar got up from where he had fallen asleep, prodded the fire that had burned down to embers to give it some life then added some wood and set a pot of water to boil. While the water was boiling he turned and started to climb he had decided this would be his last chance to practice next time he climbed it would be the real thing so he pushed hard to make the most of it
“Climb levelled up climb level 9”
The water had long since boiled when he had finished climbing so Gar dropped in some pine needles and pulled the pan off the heat scooping out a nice drink of pine needle tea in his cup to start his day off right. Gar pulled out the sacks containing his food supplies and emptied them out, as he suspected some of the pods and berries at the bottom of the bags had been there too long and gone past their best. He sorted through all the food putting anything that was even questionable to one side and using rot on the whole pile to get rid of it. He ate as much as he wanted of what was left.
After eating he was off to gather more food, he loaded the empty sacks into his backpack then armour on new spear in hand and two badgers at his feet he set off into the forest towards where the axen trees where. This time when he got there he didn’t pick any off the floor he wanted everything he collected to last as long as possible. So he climbed the tree, at that point between his climb skill and being able to push his fingers and toes into the trunk it was child’s play to climb even wearing his armour. Gar climbed about the trees picking any axen pods that looked ready to fall. He had to go to five different trees but he was able to fill two full sacks one with the nuts in the pods and one with just the nuts as they should last much longer, he loaded both sacks into his rucksacks and returned to camp.
He could have done everything in one trip to save time, he didn’t as he was in no rush and that would have meant carrying the sacks of nuts all day. He would just take it easy and do two trips out. He dropped the nuts and pods back off at base and went straight back out again only this time towards the river. Once he was back at the same spot he used before he pulled out his line and stick. He hadn’t bothered to try and fill the thorns with slumbering vine sap this time hoping that it didn’t really matter. He spent several minutes crawling around looking in the leaf litter for bugs and other small things that crawled until every hook on his line was baited. The line was flung out into the water and he stabbed the stick into the ground to hold it in place.
While he waited for fish he pulled another sack from his bag and started collecting thorn berries from the river banks like with the axen trees he was only picking the best berries the ones that would last at least a little while. He had to go quite a way up and down the river bank to fill the sack with berries. Once that was done he returned to his line it had taken a while to fill the sack so he plucked up the stick and started to reel in his line. There was more resistance that time it felt like something was pulling against him perhaps the sap had been doing something last time after all. Gar was fighting what he was sure was a big fish or lots of fish on his line. He didn’t know what you were supposed to do when fishing so just kept reeling his fish in. Fortunately the slumbering vine fibre he used for his line was strong. With l a couple of meters of line still in the water he could see the fish by the bank. With a pull upwards he launched the fish out of the water onto the bank.
He dropped down next to it, it was a single fish and an average sized one at that. Gar guessed the sap had done a lot more than he had given it credit for. He pulled the hook out of the fish’s mouth and dropped the fish into a waiting bucket of water. A few minutes later and Gar had his line re-baited and set in the water. Gar sat by a tree to wait he pulled a small piece of rope from his pocket and started practicing tying knots with one hand, it wasn’t easy but it was a skill that would make his climb that bit easier.
It was several hours later and Gar was getting quite proficient tying knots single handily with either hand, he figured it was time to check for any fish. He reeled his line in this time feeling no resistance beyond the drag of the water he suspected he hadn’t caught anything and moments later he was proven right. He debated setting up and going again he had the time it was still only early afternoon. Then he gave up on that he had no need of more one would be enough for a good meal and he would feel more comfortable and safer back at base so he packed up and left. Dropping the bucket with the fish next to the fire pit he went and checked the rock pile again, made sure it hadn’t been moved then left B2 in front of it to guard and warn of any movement. He stored all his sacks of food in his shelter then got to his fish.
“You have killed a level 2 brown trout 0 experience awarded”
The fire was built; the fish was dispatched and gutted with a few casts of rot to clean up the guts then the fish was roasted over the fire, like before Gar just watched the fish cook giving it his full attention keeping it in the heat but out of the flames turning it as necessary. He pulled the fish off the stick and squeezed some of his old thorn berries over it before digging in. It wasn’t the most clean and civilised meal he ever had and Gar didn’t care as he ate with his fingers and picked bones from his teeth, it was a good filling meal that he just took his time and enjoyed.
