Walking back out into the chill of the winter afternoon, Liebhel made her way over towards the corpses of the three boars. Each sat motionless in pools or freezing blood and snow.

“Do you have any experience with processing an animal after a kill?” Liebhel asked as she kneeled next to one of the boars, gingerly stroking its fur.

Memories of my father and grandfather taking me hunting came back to me. I could remember us walking through plots of woods trying to scare up rabbits and me sitting on a milk crate by a fence line as they pushed deer out of nearby creeks or woods.

“A little bit. I used to hunt when I was younger, so I know how to field dress. I’ve never skinned or butchered an animal though.” I responded, cherishing the memories.

“Field dressing is certainly part of the skill I’d like to go over. Tell me Erik, have you trained in survival or nature yet?” She asked.

I shook my head no. Knowing that Brian was playing a ranger, I had decided that there wasn’t much of a point to invest into either skill tree, at least not early on in the game. Though considering my current circumstances, training in survival would likely be necessary.

A slight smile came over Liebhel’s face as she stood and walked over towards me. “This is good news. I must confess Erik, there is a good reason why I had been dispatched to come and meet with you over any other member of the Pantheon. Handoran, the God of Navigation and Trade, is also the messenger for the Pantheon. He is normally the one who issues our decrees to the planet's priests and priestesses. He is also in charge of transferring Outworlders to the planet.” Liebhel’s light speckled eyes went wide as she suddenly started to giggle. “You know, he was not very pleased with you when you got sick on your way down to the planet.”

I looked up at the sky trying to hide the blush that I could feel creeping over my face. “Ya well, let him know that in the future he should try to avoid spinning people around like a lasso at a rodeo,” I said.

“Yes, well the reason I was selected to come in his stead, was to offer you not just our apologies but to also offer you restitution for our failure. Considering your circumstances, I was selected to be the one to bestow upon you our gift.” She said, as her hand came up to rest on my chest.

“A gift? Like a weapon or magical item?” I asked as I felt the warmth of her hand easily penetrate through the thick fur of my armor.

She shook her head, a smile creeping into the corner of her mouth. “Sadly no. It's not unheard of for us to offer such gifts to our most dedicated followers, but you lack devotion and experience with any of our faiths for us to offer you such items. This is also a gift from the Pantheon through me. Our council never rewards others with physical items or wealth, we reserve this for our individual followers. However, if the council deems it appropriate, we can offer individuals boons and knowledge.” She said as her other hand moved to my arm. “Please, kneel before me Erik, so I can bestow upon you the gift I have prepared.”

I carefully lowered myself before the goddess. Her short stature allowed us to see eye to eye as I knelt. Her hand moved from my arm to my face, her thumb resting on my forehead. With her other hand on my heart, she began to chant in a language that I did not understand. I could see a soft green light begin to shine from both hands as her voice grew louder, becoming more authoritative and she spoke. A sudden pressure pressed against my head and heart, as my vision went white. Notifications opened up in the middle of my vision one after another.

Rejoice Outworlder, for you have been deemed worthy!

You have received the “Boon of the Land” by the deity Liebhel. A boon given by a deity is a permanent character trait that directly relates to the deity’s domain. You may lose a boon if you act in opposition to the deity’s ideals.

Boon of the Land - Wilderness Domain of the Goddess Liebhel

All Survival skill checks are improved by +20% All Nature skill checks are improved by +20% All skill checks improved by +5% when outside of towns/cities.

You have become Trained in: Survival, Nature

You have learned the following Advanced Skills

Advanced Skill Learned - Survival: Hunting, Common, LVL 1

Your stealth and tracking ability improve while hunting nonsentient creatures.

+1% to stealth when hunting, per skill level. +1% to tracking when hunting, per skill level.

Advanced Skill Learned - Survival: Trapping, Uncommon, LVL 1

Prerequisite Skills: Hunting

You learn how to craft and place traps meant to kill or capture creatures.

+1% chance to successfully craft a trap, per skill level. +1% to trap placement, per skill level.

Advanced Skill Learned - Survival: Creature Harvesting, Common LVL 1

When harvesting creatures, you increase the speed of harvesting and quality of harvested materials.

+1% to harvesting speed when gutting, skinning, or butchering creatures per skill level. +1% chance to improve the quality of materials you harvest from creatures per skill level.

Advanced Skill Learned - Nature: Weather Prediction, Uncommon LVL 1

Prerequisite Skills: Trained in both Survival and Nature Skill Trees.

Able to naturally read your environment to forecast the weather hours or days ahead of time.

+1% chance to accurately predict the weather per skill level. +2% increase in length and depth of prediction per skill level.

Advanced Skill Learned - Crafting: Survival Crafting, Uncommon, LVL 1

Prerequisite Skills: Trained in both Crafting and Survival Skill Trees.

You can craft items, weapons, tools, and armors from materials you find in nature without having access to crafting tools or workbenches.

+1% chance to improve quality of crafted items when not using appropriate tools/workbench per level. +10% to crafted items durability per skill level.

As my vision began to filter back to me, I noticed that I was laying on my back, looking up at the sky while Liebhel stared down at me, a sly grin on her face. My head throbbed with what felt like a migraine, though it was slowly starting to dissipate.

“W..w..wh..what th..the… hell.” I managed to stutter out.

“I am sorry Erik. It has been a while since I passed that much knowledge to a mortal. I may have forgotten the effect that the process could have on someone such as yourself.” She said, not sounding sorry in the slightest.

I managed to get myself up into a sitting position as I looked up at Liebhel. “Five advanced skills at once and you didn’t think there would be any issue?”

“Weeellllll,” Liebhel said, her head tilted up towards the sky and away from my glare. “It is my boon that knocked you off your knees. Gaining a deity's boon tends to have this kind of effect. Though I will admit that receiving five skills at once would have elevated the after effects. Now, let's go over one of the skills you just learned, Creature Harvesting.”

Liebhel softly moved back over to the boar, moving in such a way that she didn’t even leave tracks in the blood soaked snow. I grudgingly crawled the few feet over to the animal through the red slush, knowing that the business I was about to undertake was going to be messy.

“Erik, I would like you to look over the animal with the intention in mind that you would like to harvest the creature.”

Looking down over the boar, following Liebhel’s instructions, I noticed a faint dot of light appear on its lower belly. From my past experiences hunting, I knew this was where I would start my cut to begin field dressing the animal.

I took out my knife from its sheath and made a small incision where the light was brightest, past experience and a new natural intuition telling me to be careful not to puncture the abdominal muscle on the initial cut. Following the light, intuition, and my own real life knowledge, I worked to bisect the creature from groin to neck, using my hands to shift the organs around to avoid puncturing the stomach or intestines as I worked. In the span of 2 minutes, I had a pile of the boar's innards sitting in a separate pile while I finished cracking the creature's pelvis with my hatchet so I could splay out its hind legs and clean out the remaining bits of its lower intestine.

“I haven’t had to do this in a long time, and even when I did, I never went through a field dressing this quickly,” I said to Liebhel. When hunting with my dad and grandpa, I had always second guessed myself working around the digestive organs, worried about making a mess and soiling the meat.

Liebhel smiled slightly. “Yes, that was the instinctual knowledge guiding your hand as you worked. That combined with your previous knowledge made you more adept at the task than you would have been without the skill, or without your previous knowledge. When you go to skin the creature, you will find the work harder since you have no previous experience, but by the time you get through your third boar, you should be able to work at a fairly average pace.”

Under Liebhel’s guidance, I continued to work on processing the boars, first by field dressing the other two, and then by skinning and butchering the creatures. As she had said, the first boar I worked on was difficult to skin and butcher. While there were visual cues and instincts guiding my hand, the work was hard without having concrete knowledge of what I was doing. Even with the skills Wiki page giving me a detailed step-by-step accounting on how to skin and butcher, I still found myself going slow and struggling to trust my decisions as I worked.

The result was that my first boar hide and some of the cuts of meat ended up being poor quality instead of average. Luckily, my experience working on the first creature helped me understand all the processes involved, and I managed to finish the next two boars much quicker and without harming the pelts or meat. The whole process took me over half an hour to complete for all three animals, with the butchering surprisingly taking up the majority of that time and which resulted in my harvesting skill jumping up to level 2.

Now that I was done, I realized I had another issue. “So… I can’t carry all of this,” I said, feeling pretty dumb after spending all that time butchering each creature, with each weight over 150 pounds.

Liebhel broke out in laughter. “No, I suppose you cannot. You also do not have the means to effectively cure the hides or meat. You could smoke or sun cure either, but you will need to have shelter in place before those methods are possible. Do not worry, I have a solution.”

Moving over to the pile of hides and meat, Liebhel began to chant. A green glow emitted from her hands and surrounded the items. The hides didn’t change much, only losing some bits of flesh that still clung to the underside of the pelts. However, the meat drastically changed shape. The large cuts of meat were quickly cut into strips as they shrank and darkened, while some cuts of the pork belly took on a deeper, richer color. Looking over items once Liebhel had finished, I could see all the pelts, and about a third of the boar meat had been cured.

Cured Boar Pelt, Common x 3

Quality: Poor x 1, Average x 2

Weight: 9 LBS

These boar pelts can be further processed into leather or used in crafting recipes that require furs or hides.

Boar Jerky, Common

Quality: Average

Weight: 20 LBS (Total)

Jerky made from the meat of a boar.

Cured Boar Bacon

Quality: Average

Weight: 10 LBS

Bacon made from wild boar.

Next to the pile of cured goods was also an assortment of clean bones and meat that the spell hadn’t touched. Liebhel gestured to the items and said, “The bones will be useful to you in crafting some items and tools once you find shelter. The rest of the meat should remain. There are plenty of predators and scavengers who would be happy for the meal, so do not fret over it going to waste.”

I removed my pack and pulled out my original knapsack, taking a moment to reorganize both. I cut small cords of hide from the poor quality pelt and used them to tie the jerky up into smaller bundles. I ended up using my knapsack to hold my dry rations and as much jerky as it could hold, then filling my larger backpack up with the remaining jerky, bacon, and hides, with an assortment of different bones

Liebhel cleared her throat as I started to sling the packs back onto my shoulders. “I must go now, Erik. I believe I have given you all the knowledge necessary for you to make a decision on what to do next.”

I got to my feet and bowed slightly to the goddess. “Thank you so much for the help. I know you and the Pantheon didn’t have to intervene on my behalf, that you could have just left me to my own devices. I truly appreciate your support.”

“As I have said, we were simply righting a wrong that was only able to happen because of our own failures. Moving forward, for better or worse, the Pantheon will not intervene on your behalf in regards to the situation in Jadestone. It is up to you to rely on the skills we have given you and to move forward from there, whether you decide to remain in the valley or try to travel through the Iron Road.” Leibhel said. Giving me one final smile, she turned on her feet and walked back towards the stand of firs where we had sheltered when she first arrived. Walking through the opening in the dense thicket of trees, the branches curled back into place where she had walked through, coming to rest in their natural positions once again.

Standing there in the middle of the trail, surrounded by now frozen blood, I contemplated the words she left me with. Looking back through the list of skills she had given me, I wondered how any of them would help me come to a decision on whether I should leave the valley or remain and hope I gained access to the spawn point in Jadestone.

The skills of hunting, trapping, and creature harvesting were helpful survival skills that would come in handy regardless of what decision I made, though I was stocked up on food at the moment. The survival crafting skill seemed like it would likewise come in handy regardless of what I decided to do. The skill gave me access to several crafting recipes that I could use out in the wilderness while also allowing me to craft certain items without the proper tools or workstations.

The one skill that Liebhel gave me that seemed to have any bearing on my decision moving forward was the Weather Prediction skill. My mind immediately went to the thoughts I had earlier in the day about whether or not there was snow coming. I looked back over to the western mountains, focusing on the dark wall of clouds that seemed to peak around the edges of the mountains.

My leg, for the second time that day, started to throb in the old familiar way it would out in the real work when rain or snow was on its way and a new icon popped up in the top right corner of my vision. It looked like any icon that might appear on a daily weather forecast, this one showing a sun surrounded by clouds, but with a frozen thermometer symbol to the side indicating cold temperatures. I focused on the symbol and an information box appeared.

Based on the current environmental conditions, you have made the following weather observations.

It is partly cloudy, moving to mostly cloudy. Temperatures are just below freezing. Temperatures are currently falling.

Weather Predictions for the next 6 hours*

Moderate to heavy snowfall is predicted to start in the next two-three hours. Temperatures are expected to fall to a low to moderate degree. Wind speed is expected to increase by a moderate to a major degree.

Forecast accuracy: Average**

*6 Hours 7 minutes. Based on base prediction time of 6 hours, +2% based on skill level.

**Forecast accuracy improved from base accuracy by +20% (Jullipper Tea), +20%, and +5% (Boon of the Land).

I finally understood what Liebhel had wanted to warn me about. She had been unable to give me direct information about what I should do or where I should go due to the Pantheon’s own code. Pantheon members, outside of extreme circumstances, were unable to directly influence the decision making of mortals. The decree they had issued before I spawned in was an extreme rarity, an action that Liebhel made clear they would normally not take. Breaking their code for a single Outworlder was simply out of the question.

It wasn’t just that she gave me a skill that allowed me to predict the weather. Nature skills mostly relied on wisdom and intelligence, which are still at their base of 10 for me, meaning any prediction my skill made would have lower accuracy. But she also gave me her boon and cup of tea, both of which gave me boosts to the power of any survival and nature skills, which improved the accuracy of the weather prediction.

She had wanted me to feel confident in the forecast when making my decision. Liebhel wouldn’t have done this if there wasn’t some type of storm coming. Good weather wouldn’t have affected my decision in the slightest. I had to believe that all her decisions and gifts were being given to me with a specific purpose in mind. I wasn’t just meant to understand that it would snow, I was meant to understand it would be a serious storm.

Feeling confident in the weather forecast considering the circumstances, I knew what it was I had to do. While I didn’t know if it was more dangerous to travel through the valley or the pass during a storm, I knew that not having a place to shelter would be the death of me. While my hide armor was fur-covered and gave me decent insulation, without hand, head, or proper foot coverings, I’d quickly succumb to the elements. My decision was made. I was staying in the valley, and I needed to find shelter, fast.