Day 1.13

Sleep wasn’t something that was coming easily to him, but then again, it never had been. To be cursed with both an inability to drag himself out of bed and resistance to going to sleep had to be some kind of karmic justice for wrongdoing in his past life.

August sighed, watching the hot coals at the base of the fire, and considered putting a new branch inside. The temperature was a shade cooler than comfortable, and that was with the fire warming its immediate surroundings. He’d need something more appropriate than an [Lean-to] in the future.

It had no walls for one, and it failed to contain any of the heat the fire was giving off. He’d need to build a small proper room of some sort. Something with four walls, a ceiling, and a floor—he barely had any idea where to start with something like that. But he had access to a power that would help alleviate that lack of knowledge somewhat, so long as he attempted to build something first.

August thought of the treehouse he’d had when he was five, placed barely two feet off the ground because nobody wanted him climbing up too high and injuring himself. It had been made of planks, the type that he was now pretty sure was actually leftover fence palings or perhaps boards off a pallet.

Making planks was something of a far-off dream; for now, the effort, time, and energy required to shave a piece of wood down to a plank with his [Flint Knife] were outside of his reach for now. He could probably recycle what he had used for the [Lean-to] for the walls and ceiling, but he couldn’t imagine something less pleasant to lay or walk on than a floor made of branches.

What else were floors made of? Wood, concrete, metal—Clay? He was already planning on digging a pit; he may as well keep an eye out for clay. He could pack it together to make bricks; wasn’t that how they were made?

August narrowed his eyes at the crackling fire, trying to ignore the darkness all around him.

Clay needed to be heat-treated, didn’t it? That’s how pottery was made, shape wet clay, then bake it in an oven. He had a fire, a source of water, and clay was pretty much everywhere; if he spent some time shaping it into bricks, it would probably work a hell of a lot better as building material than just loose branches he’d picked up off the ground.

“I’m never getting to sleep, am I?” August sighed.

Ladybug chirped, apparently not having much luck there either—or perhaps it didn’t sleep in the first place? Was the guarding status he’d assigned the monster forcing it to remain awake? August wished these things came with a more detailed explanation. He wondered about the [Delegate] skill for a while before hitting on the idea of trying out the other skill on the monster.

“[Assign Role],” August said.

Select Target

Select Role

As he had done earlier, he once again set the target to [Efkini] and expanded the [Select Role] option.

Striker

Defender

Evader

“Well, those look familiar,” August said. “No sign of the other roles? You could have been the Queen of the [Efkini]; I suppose it would be weird for you to be a [Ruler], huh?”

Ladybug chirped at the attention, so he took that as an agreement.

“I’m already an [Evader], and I kind of want to know what the other two roles do,” August wondered. “Do you want to be a [Striker] or a [Defender]?”

Ladybug wiggled around a bit, making itself more comfortable, and then went back to facing the fire—well, he assumed it was facing it. August sighed at having to make the decision himself; Ladybug was really the only thing he had to put between himself and the other monsters in Devil’s Nest, so he needed to decide how that would function.

Ladybug was fast, agile, and already had an effective weapon given its chain’s ability to dig deep into trees. It’s body was made of flesh, bone and fur, and from just looking at it, he was pretty sure he could kick the thing hard enough to cause some damage if he really needed to.

“Let’s make you a [Defender],” August decided, “You’re already guarding me; may as well give you some kind of defence to protect yourself.”

Efkini has become a Defender.

Efkini has learned Brace.

“[Brace]?” August said, blinking.

A white glow seeped out of its red and black fur, covering its entire body in under a second and leaving a glowing white veil covering the monster. Three seconds passed, and then the glow faded away as if it had never been there in the first place. Ladybug spun around, attempting to figure out where the white light had come from and where it had vanished to, with no success.

August called up the [Analysis] overlay, drawing Ladybug’s attention to him once more.

Level 3

Healthy

MP – 0/3

EXP – 23/300

*

[Brace] had clearly taken all of its Mana, including the boosted amount it had gained from the repeated use of [Tame]. He wasn’t sure whether it used exactly [33 MP] or used up what was there to perform the skill.

The [0/3] made him wonder if that meant it was currently starving—the summary had said it fed on [Ambient Mana], did draining it to zero correlate somehow with its hunger? Or was it kept at a sustainable level regardless of the mana tracker?

Better to not risk it falling over from exhaustion from a lack of energy—August patted the ground next to him, and Ladybug waddled over; when it was close enough, he reached out and placed his hand against its fur, carefully avoiding the spikes.

[Tame] drained his Mana to zero in about six seconds flat, but it raised her Mana back up to [6/3]. Ladybug seemed ecstatic at the return of the strange source of Mana he could bring forth and settled itself down beside him in case there was more to come.

August returned to his circular thoughts, making a mental list of all the things he’d need in the future and how he might go about making them. A real food source, other than Sadapples, would need to be something he figured out eventually.

The fact that fruit-bearing trees were growing in the forest and plant life everywhere else suggested that he might find other types of fruit or even ground vegetables.

His mother had a garden when he was little, and the one time he ever went over to Eric’s house, he’d seen that the entire left side of his yard had been overgrown with what looked like a watermelon vine.

August could try and make a garden near his camp, wall it off from anything that might come in, and eat it. Having a variety of food sources would help keep him alive if one of them failed. If the [Blueroot] trees only bore fruit at a specific time of year, he might well run out at any time.

“There’s too much to consider,” August mumbled, activating [Tame] once more. “I’m thinking to long term, I need to make something strong, small and reliable first.”

A place where he could genuinely be safe from the monsters roaming around, and that meant walls, fences, or traps—and to make that kind of thing, he’d need better tools. He’d come full circle once again, and he sighed before laying down on his back on the hard-packed dirt.

“Make better tools,” August murmured. “There’s no getting around it; I need to do that first.”

He needed four things, an axe, a shovel, a chisel, and a hammer—a rock would probably do for a hammer, but the others were more important. That would be his goal for tomorrow, to sit down and make an assortment of tools.

August closed his eyes.