《Virtual reality: Sorp》Chapter twenty four: Home away from home.
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Sorp is moving in the forest. Every time he believes he found the hideout of a hidden beast he strikes without hesitation. This has yet to provide any merit.
For others, this would at least give them the comfort, knowing they have at least eliminated a potential threat.
Sorp however only becomes increasingly frustrated. Going so far as to let his emotion take control of him and shout out in frustration.
The current progress is still impressive. Sorp has found the two poisonous plants he needs to concoct a poisonous substance.
This requires some amount of water or flowing blood. Currently Sorp only has what amounts to a few drops of blood.
He can resort to slicing his own body, using his own blood to concoct the poison. In some cases, this is not an unreasonable choince. The amount of blood required is small.
It only needs enough to cover a single weapon. In the spear’s case, the amount is only a few drops. The short sword requires more as it has at least four times the surface of the spear.
None of this important to Sorp however. His willful nature might even have him cast it all aside and ignore it, all in the name of a thrilling hunt.
Daisy has similarly made considerable progress in her journey. She has crafted not only the gauze and braided a rope. She has created a beast repellent and found a small source of water.
Unlike Sorp, she didn’t wantonly attack any potential beast she might run across. Instead she carefully avoided them, looking for a more advantageous situation.
Sorp’s shouts are loud but they can’t reach far in this forest. The trees and thick flora acts as a soundproofing. But Daisy still heard the remnants of it.
By the point it reached her ears, it was incoherent and she could only assume it was the rustling of some bush or the distant call of a beast.
Sorp might seem a bit behind in terms of gathering and crafting supplies. But his advancement into the depths of the forest exceeds Daisy’s by a factor of three.
He is now far enough in to feel the environment change. There is surprisingly more light and the air contains more moisture.
With more light, Sorp regains more his hyper observant self. His speed increases. His eyes no longer as comically dilated.
The surroundings even have the marks of a territorial beast. Something lives in this area that doesn't hide in a hole in the ground.
Sorp might not realize this change, but he certainly welcomes the increase in light.
With his increased pace, he makes more noises. Being in an area where something makes its home, his intrusion doesn’t go unknown for long.
When Sorp is finally confronted he finally stops. His bare feet wiggle in the grass, feeling the moist dirt beneath him.
His B.F.M. Short sword materializes. His spear remains in his hand, a small stub for the moment, not yet materialized.
The beast walks on four legs. Their ends small and stubby, the further up they go the more muscular they are.
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This beast only reaches one third of Sorp’s height.
“Small.”
Aside from shouting in frustration or provocation, these are Sorp’s first words since entering the forest. His smile wide as ever.
The beast is small in comparison to what he has fought in battle arenas. It is the largest animal he has seen in Perpetuity, aside from the corses.
His intent to fight rises without end. His stance very clear to the beast. The beast understands that this intruder was to fight.
This can be considered a threat and an insult. And the threat can’t be ignored in this case. Its only choices are fight or flight.
Considering its intelligence, it only ever considers fighting. Flight is an absurd notation only reserved for packs of beasts or its natural predator.
Seeing it stand its ground, Sorp blows out of his nose. He takes a small quick step forward and uses it to leap into a dash.
The beat reacts by letting out a grunt and charges forward, its head lowered, pointing its two horns towards Sorp.
Once close enough Sorp pulls his B.F.M. sword back and let his B.F.M. spear elongate. The sudden weight should make it harder to aim.
The spear reverberates, this makes it hard to aim. Sorp still strikes passed the entwined horns and pierces into the beasts head.
The momentum comes to a sudden end. Sorp’s spear holding hand kicks back. He hadn’t prepared for the kickback.
On the ground the beast lies on its side. Sorp’s B.F.M. has already returned to its small handle.
The Twin horned bullpig
It’s horns fork and entwine to create a defencive mesh.
The twin horned bullpig live within their territory their entire life. The female bullpig will seek out its mate by the scent and markings of the male bullpig.
The horns of the bullpig can be used in a variety of crafting professions, currently no known public uses.
You can gather further information on the twin horned bullpig by gathering their materials and seeking out a professional crafter.
Current average health of a male twin horned bullpig is unknown. Gathered data is insufficient to create an estimate.
Sorp glanced at the message. His reading was almost miraculous, having studied at the training camp he was almost an expert.
This was two fold, one was that Sorp wasn’t unintelligent. He was just sorely lacking in any discipline that didn’t include his friends.
Meaning he did what he wanted and did not do the things he did not want to do. Over the years he had not become more disciplined. Instead he became wiser.
Wisdom is often misattributed to mean intelligent. This is one of those things that Perpetual Power is trying to establish firm boundaries for.
Similar to people's average health or stamina. Wisdom and Intelligence should be quantifiable to a degree.
Intelligence can be figured out through thorough testing, but wisdom is a long time endeavour.
Wisdom can only be seen through thousands of decisions. What people decide to do and what they decide not to do.
In a similar way there are degrees of specific applicable wisdom. Perhaps a person with great wisdom would be a great leader, a commander of thousand men.
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But he might be great enough to lead nations. The opposite is true as well, he might not possess enough wisdom to lead even a small squadron of men.
Perpetual Power wishes to eventually quantify these untold decisions individual makes and mark them on a scale of wrong to right.
There are numerous problems with this system. They might mark a decision as right, only to find that in the future this proves to be wrong.
It is due to this that great lengths of time is required to standardize the near infinite possible decision people take.
Not only this, but there are decision that can be wrong but are considered right due to the person's accumulated knowledge is lacking.
The problem becomes, how to weigh this particular choice depending of known knowledge. Short answer is, they don’t.
It is because of such things that there will likely never be perfect estimate of a person’s wisdom.
The second reason Sorp’s reading became so great is that his natural hype observant ability allows him to read at a rate that is above average.
Sorp only skimmed the message. From an outside perspective it appeared as if he had only glanced at his wrist. Most would assume he was looking for the time.
Making sure the beast was dead Sorp began working the carcass. This was another thing he had studied and trained in.
He hung the carcass from a low branch, using his weed woven rope to hold it in place. He drained its blood into a container. This was two liter container.
Majority of the blood drained into the ground. Sorp took a great big swig of the bullpig’s blood before filling it back up. To say he had been thirsty is an understatement.
The blood scent might lure nearby beasts but Sorp didn’t care. He had the plants to create a concoction to disperse the scent. He choice not to use it.
Skinned and drained of blood, Sorp began cooking the beast over an open flame. Considering the moise environment it isn’t easy to start a flame.
The flame gives off an odd smoke. To say he was roasting the bullpig is just as correct as saying he was smoking it.
On the other end, Daisy ate safe plants and had still not encountered a beast. Not surprising as she created and applied concoctions to mask her scent. In addition she moved with caution.
In truth there was no need to be this cautious. The beast in the forest are dangerous but not outside of the range of reason.
As long as she didn’t walk into the greater depths of the forest and kept to the edges of the outer rims she should be capable enough to at least fend of any beast.
A part of the contract is to find their way out as well. Daisy marked her way along, charted every ten meters and made sure she had her bearings.
Sorp did none of these things. Not because he didn’t care about knowing the way back but because he was arrogant. He believed he could easily retrace his steps.
It was within all likelihood that he could do this. But the forest wasn’t just dark. It is alive. He might actually lose his bearings if the forest sees sufficient change.
One thing they did not teach in the camp, was humility. They preached caution. These are not the same things.
The Third reinforcement camp was only concentrated on basics. Their goal was to create people that could effectively survive in an alien surrounding.
The grand scheme was to have them capable of colonizing or just exploring the outside world. Meaning outside the Pebbled in the river. The island Perpetuity was built on.
It is named this because from an eagle eye perspective, it appears to be a small rock or pebble protruding from a river.
What they taught in the second or third wave, is yet to be seen. Perhaps there they’ll instill some discipline or philosophical thought into people.
Sorp used quite a bit of his training in this test. Daisy did as well. Two days into the test she has already collected and crafted everything required, only missing the three beasts.
Sorp has not been searching for his requirements, instead he has been hunting. He moves too fast for a detailed search.
Having discarded the thought of masking his scent or moving cautiously, Sorp has already encountered five different types of beasts and multiples of some.
This being a virtual world he doesn’t need to stop to process every beast he kills. He can opt to leave it for later, moving it to his inventory.
The inventory is still locked, but this is a one side lock, he can still retain the spoils of his hunt. Daisy does this too, only she has collected abundant of herbs. These are all valuable.
The herbs are valuable, and so is the process of finding and harvesting them. The information can be sold.
Most of it can be found in books. But these books are not public knowledge and not in the hands of information dealers.
The information can include personal experience. Meaning it can describe how Daisy picked up each herb and the events leading up to it.
Whether such events are worth actually purchasing is another thing.
In addition to this, Daisy is no longer recording. It is not that she doesn’t want to, this would be a very good way to earn more viewers.
Perpetual Power, or in a lore sense, the government of Perpetuity will not allow recordings of any official test.
Once Daisy is out of the test she can sell her experience in the forest. She can tell her story and earn more viewers.
Sorp on the other hand will most likely just hand the information to his friends. Dart will probably decide to sell it.
It should only be a few days before Sorp clears the required list of herbs and concoctions. Daisy might take longer. Depending on her luck at finding suitable beasts to kill.
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