The next day Kael woke up reeking of a campfire. Standing up and stretching, he felt amazing. All of the pain from the day before was gone. I still have no idea what I am supposed to do out here. Since I have a nice cave though, I am just going to hang out looking around this area for awhile.

Moving the wood planks that covered the cave entrance he walked out into the forest. Damn, it is cold out here. Looking at the wooden planks he decided to secure his little hole away from home. Grabbing his hammer and loading his waist pack up with a crappy wood knife and 2 types of each of his alchemy creations, he boarded it up and left.

Scrounging through the forest, he collected all of the vines he could find. The only requirements he had were that they were roughly the width of a finger and they were still flexible. After hauling back a few loads of them he got to work. Pulling down his lumber wall, he started fastening them together. Starting by twining two logs together with the vines, he quickly noted he was going to end up with giant gaps between the logs. Looking at it and going into OCD mode, he admitted to himself this was not going to work.

Going to find some big tree branches, he hacked two down and chopped them up into 4 equal sized smaller logs. Laying them across the other logs to get the size right, he hacked them down until only a few inches stuck out on either side. Laying two of them out about 8 feet apart, he laid his two big logs across them. For a better fit, he laid one log flat side up and one flat side down. Shifting them together until the two curved sides overlapped, he laid his other two smaller branches across the top, in matching positions to the ones under them. Once done, began lashing them together like a raft. Finishing, he did the same to another set of two logs, then laid the two sets on top of each other. The logs were laid together off-kilter, so one of the logs from each were laid flat against each other, and one log from each set laid off to the opposite side of the other, making a flat wooden Z.

Finally done with one side of his cave entrance, he did the same with the other 6 logs. Lashing together two sets of three, then lining them up so two logs from each set rested on the other, and one log from each set was alone off to the sides. With the way the logs were laid together it shrunk the overall width of the three logs from 15 feet to 9.

Dragging the set of 6 logs over to the cave, he stood them up to measure the size between them and the entrance. Laying them back down, he dug out a 6-inch trench, laid the logs out over it and lifted it up. Sliding into the small trench, the logs were just a few inches too tall to fit into the cave. Climbing up above them and hammering them down some, he then hammered them into the cave entrance, firmly wedging them in place. Finally flipping the set of 4 logs up onto the right side of the entrance, the Z shape of the two sets fit together nicely.

Glad to be almost done, Kael used the giant mound of dirt from the pit he dug last night to pile up about two feet in front and back of the 6 log set. Packing the dirt down, that side of the entrance was firmly locked in place.

Spending the rest of the day he collected a ton of vines and foliage. Integrating them in the vines used to lash the logs together as well as the crossbars, he came up with some pretty good camouflage. Once done with that he continued to chop up the tree he cut down the day before. After hours of chopping with a fake axe, he finally had a huge pile of wood to use for fire. Going back into his cave, he ate some his bear meat that ended up being smoked into jerky, then promptly fell asleep.

The next morning he moved the small slab of wood out of the way of the cave and lit up a small fire to drive out the cold air. Eating some jerky he sat down to do his daily meditation. Trying both of his parent's qi refining techniques and failing, he tried to use a combination of their body refining, which also failed. Annoyed he decided it was time to get more water as he ran out of what he brought with him.

Grabbing his pack and hammer, he shut the cave and took off to the river. After using two 1 gallon jugs from his pack to collect water he took a quick bath. While pondering how his jugs had not broke yet, his leg was brushed by a fish that was at least 80 pounds.

Freaking out, he jumped out the water and watched the large fish swim away. Hit with a sudden need for a fish dinner he headed back to his cave. On the way back, he found some hardwood trees and chopped a few branches off them. Chopping the branches down to about 2 inches in width before heading to his hole. Getting back, he split the ends of the branches and fastened bear claws into the tip of each one. Finishing up with three primitive spears, he split some gaps into the claws to make them serrated, then headed out to go spearfishing.

Wading chest high into the river he patiently waited for fish to swim by. With the amount of fish in the untouched river, he found spearfishing easy. After spearing 6 fish that were between 60 and 100 pounds each, he grabbed them by the tails and headed to his hole.

Arriving back at the cave, he made a small pile of firewood and lit it up before leaving again. Returning with an arm full of large leaves, he tossed them to the side while he went and gather rocks. Tossing the rocks into the fire, he waited until it died down into embers. Using one of the huge femurs, he pushed the rocks together into a bed of stone that rested on top of the embers. Taking the fish outside to gut them, he then wrapped the fish in the big banana tree style leaves. Laying them out on top of the rocks, he finally covered them with dirt.

While waiting for his fish to cook, he began working on the two bear tusks. He carefully chipped grooves into the base of them to reduces their width into something that could be held. Using some porous rocks, he grinded them down until they were smooth. Satisfied with the handles size he placed them aside. Needing to wrap the handles, he cut a long thin strip off the bearskin. Peeling the skin from the strip he was left with a long leather cord like strap. Tightly wrapping the handles of the bear tusks up with the leather, he tied them off before reviewing his work. Sure the leather would not slip off, he set them aside and unburied his dinner.

Taking out the hot bundles of leaves, some spots were burnt through but they were mainly intact. Unwrapping them the aroma of freshly roasted fish filled the cave. Using his wooden knife to scrape the scales off one of them before tasting it, he was well satisfied. Activating his internal forge technique he ripped through all 6 fish before immediately starting to cultivate.

2 hours later the forest echoed with a child's shout of, “Fuck!”

Failing once again in his cultivation, Kael was extremely depressed. Take a risk they said, you will break through they said, turn into a bear turd they said! Standing up and pacing around the back room of the cave, Kael slowly settled his thoughts. This isn’t good, I will get a mental block just like what happened with crafting. Sitting down and breathing slowly until he fell back into meditation, he did not focus on cultivating, just relaxing.

An hour later, he had calmed down. It’s not going to happen in one day. Just move slowly, your father wouldn’t bullshit you on something like this. Looking out of his cave to see night was starting to fall, he covered the entrance and just slowly worked on cultivating the rest of the night.

6 weeks flashed by with Kael hunting and living out of his cave. During this time he had tried to adjust his attitude. Each morning he would cultivate for 2 hours, practice with his hammer for 2 hours, and then practice his heat raising steps for 2 hours. At noon he would stop and build something random for his cave. It did not matter what it was to him, as long as it was back-breaking labor. Using this method to productively train his endurance.

Although his cultivation had not increased, his agility had increased by 1 and his stamina by 2. His father's words about bitterly training your body before Qi refinement turned out to be true. This spurred him on even farther after he received the first increase notification.

The interior of his cave was looking nice. He had made a few chairs consisting of stumps with backs hewn into them and an eight-foot long table. He had also finished grinding down his bear tusk daggers, which turned out to be tier 5 mortal ranked weapons. Happy with that he grinded down the other claws into sharp straight points and embed them in 5-foot wooden poles. Having javelins and knives made hunting way easier.

Two more weeks passed in this manner. Kael had spent the time to grind the femurs into blades. Grinding the handles into them and wrapping them in leather, he ended up with sickle-like swords with two-foot blades. Happy with his creations he went outside the cave to swing them around. He wasn’t particularly skilled in using two blades, but he did not chop a leg off, so he considered it a success. Planning to use them to chop wood and vines, they would work fine for his goals. Heading back into his cave, he tossed them aside.

Slinging his pack over his back and tucking his two bear tusk daggers into his belt, he then hung his javelins diagonally across his back. They fit snugly into a sling he built onto the part of the pack that rested on his back. Checking his waist pack to be sure it had two of everything, he picked up his hammer to head outside. Closing his cave up, he looked around before picking a direction to hunt in and taking off.