Ena and I gathered our things into one place, then I went out hunting while she refilled the bamboo canteens I had made. I finished hunting quickly, catching two large spotted pacas and setting them to dry after cutting out thin pieces of meat.

Ena came back with the four canteens I had made, each one holding about six or seven liters of water, and placed them down with the rest of the stuff. We had few things, really, just some bags in which to put the jerky in, the canteens, and other bags for random tools and some spare clothing that she had made for us.

“The jerky won’t be done until nighttime”, I said, with a plan in mind. “How about playing a round or two of ‘Bloom’ to pass the time?”

“Never heard of that game”, replied Ena, slightly confused. “What’s it about?”

“Okay, so you have a board of sixty-one hexagons, which they themselves for a bigger hexagon, and your goal-”

“Stop!”, she voiced. “I’m not gonna get it with all that explanation about hexagons making hexagons, you know? And isn’t that a bit complicated to make with rocks?”

“-It’s not that hard to understand, though… No, it’s not that complicated. [Mason] allowed me to make even a dodecahedron”, I explained.

“And I know what that is, yes”, said Ena with heavy sarcasm. “Do you even have the board? Or did you just offer to play a boardgame you don’t have?”

“I, uh… I’ll go make the board”

I used [Terramancer] and [Mason] to make yet another pot, which I filled with water and placed over the fire to bring it to a boil together with some particular leaves. While that boiled, I used [Terramancer] again to unearth five different stones, each one of a different color. I used one of the stones as the board, making it thin and flat. The others were then cut into twenty hexagons each, every piece fitting into the board perfectly, thanks to [Mason].

When the water came to a boil, I mixed the leaves around for a bit with a stick, then dropped forty of the hexagons into the mix. After a good while, the pieces were now slightly tinted green, the stones having a clear separation now: light gray and dark gray, and light green and dark green. There were eighty pieces for a sixty-one tile board, but that didn’t matter much.

“All done!”, I shouted over to Ena, who was sitting at a distance while she watched the birds fly by.

“Ah, coming”, she responded. “Now, could you give me a demonstration? I’m not very good with explanations.”

“Sure”, I said as I showed her the four colors of hexagons, then placed one color completely surrounding the other. “The goal is to surround your opponent’s colors with your own. As soon as you surround a clump of one color, that clump turns into points, your points.

“Each player has two colors, you have to place both in the same turn, too”

“Let’s see if I understood at all, then”, she said confidently.

…

She was then beaten mercilessly, I checked my notifications after she gave up.

Congratulations! You have been given 1 level in [Mason]

All Stats + 5

Current Stats:

[Sanjo, Defender of the Lands]

Age: 15

Classes

Health: 405 (+5)

Endurance: 355 (+5)

[Geologist] I lvl5

Agility: 355 (+10)

[Mason] I lvl13

Intelligence: 355

[Terramancer] I lvl14

Magic: 355

[Spearman] I lvl15

Charisma: 355

[Hunter] I lvl 14

Perks

Personal Perks

Class Perks

[Chosen by Crab] V

[Mineral Kineticism] I

[Earth Child] I (HP+5, EN+5)

[Sixth Sense] I

[Monster Slayer] II (AG+10)

[System Crafting] I

[Food Poisoning Resistance] I

[Mineral Examination] I

[Survival Skills] I

[Further Reinforcement] II

[Instant Heal] II

[Mineral Explosion] II

[Walker] I

[Weightless Spear] II

[Night Vision] I

[Homing Spear] III