Day 3.11

August was interested to note that he’d seen the alert that Rittan had received for the unlocked Role. It made him wonder if others were capable of unlocking the roles without him being involved. He also seemed to be capable of using at least two roles at once—[Striker] and [Gatherer].

Given how many August himself currently possessed, if there was an upper limit to how many you could have at once, neither of them had yet reached it. Rittan had access to the [Role] menu, and in turn, the skills that were listed beneath each. He didn’t appear to have access to any kind of [Blueprint] menu, nor anything else.

“Do you want the others as well?” August offered, “There’s still [Defender] and [Evader] available.”

“Certainly,” Rittan agreed without comment.

August fired off two uses of [Assign Role], gifting him the two roles.

Rittan has unlocked the Defender Role

Rittan has unlocked the Evader Role

“I’m kind of jealous,” August admitted, “I don’t actually have [Striker] or [Defender] unlocked.”

“Yet you are still able to gift them to others?” Rittan said, drawing his eyebrows together in thought.

“Hidden mechanics or something,” August sighed, “I had the choice between those three starters when I first woke up, so I’ve technically seen them? Maybe that means I’m stuck in the middle of ‘encountered’ but not ‘unlocked.’”

That didn’t seem to be the case for [Commander], however, but that and [Ruler] seemed to be in a category of their own.

“Tomorrow reveals the mysteries of the past,” Rittan said, with the air of quoting someone.

“I suppose,” August hedged, turning his gaze back over Ladybug’s head towards the lake.

He squinted into the darkness, trying to pick out the outline of the rock monster that was out there somewhere, hoping that it wasn’t sneaking up on them right now. Rather than torture himself further, he turned his mind to more productive things—namely the knowledge that they would be bringing a second Voithos to the island.

The [A-Frame Hut] was large enough that it could seat maybe four people total, but that would be its maximum capacity. In practice, however, having four people stuffed into one shelter was probably not something he’d be happy with long term. That meant a second [A-Frame Hut] was in the near future, but it could wait a day. Likewise, the food situation was tolerable, but not ideal; they weren’t going to run out of Sadapples for a couple of weeks at least—but on the flip side, they would be eating Sadapples for a couple of weeks.

The main problem they probably had, was one of bandwidth—August had the only set of tools, and some of them were already starting to be worn down. Rittan needed a set for himself, so they could work independently of each other or simultaneously without running into issues with a lack of tools.

Building these shelters required wood, vine, and prep work. A second [Flint Axe] for gathering the wood, another [Flint Knife] for prepping the branches and cutting the vine—those were the most basic set needed.

“Tomorrow, after we finish putting the front wall on,” August said, breaking the silence. “I’ll make a second set of tools, so you’re not dependant on me if you want to do something.”

Rittan lifted his gaze from the fire, listening once more.

“I also want to figure out how to deal with that monster on the shoreline—it’s going to keep me up all night again,” August said, chewing on his lip. “Rittan, can you fight?”

“Like all of my kind, I have basic combat instruction,” Rittan nodded, “However, that instruction was for use in conjunction with advanced armour.”

“Armour?” August murmured. “What did they give you guys to use?”

“The most common piece of equipment was a runic mesh amour that was capable of nullifying physical weapons,” Rittan said, leaning down onto his side and placing most of his weight onto two of his right elbows. “Combined with our physical strength, it made most conflicts easy to resolve by simply restraining the target.”

“Did you ever use it?” August asked.

“Twice,” Rittan admitted. “Once was during an attack by a large group of Magnus that had managed to infiltrate Hekaton. The other time was when a… client brought me with them for an off-platform hunting trip.”

“What about weapons?” August tried, “I made that shitty spear you saw this morning. Do you want one of those?”

“I have no training with a spear,” Rittan admitted, glancing away. “But I know how to use a hunting bow.”

August sat stunned for a moment before his mind caught up again.

“A bow!” August said, smacking himself in the face with his palm. “Why didn’t I think of that? I’m on an island filled with massive monsters, and I was planning on going into melee with them? I’m a fucking idiot!”

“Are you even aware of how to make a bow?” Rittan asked, curious. “I’ve been told it’s quite difficult.”

“A branch and a vine?” August guessed, flapping his hand. “Hopefully, the [Blueprint] stuff will pick up the rest of the slack—arrows might be a problem though, do you actually need feathers for those?”

“I believe they act to stabilise the flight of the arrow,” Rittan offered, “There are other throwing weapons that may work—large stones, throwing knives or even throwing axes, but I imagine those last two to be rather costly in terms of time.”

“There’s those throwing spears as well—javelins,” August added, shaking his head at himself. “May as well try all of them, see which one works the best.”