The next morning, I woke up and took one of the cakes from the sack sighing slightly as I realised that I now only had three left which after yesterday suddenly didn’t seem like an awful lot. After all I didn’t want to think about how hungry I would have to be before I tried to eat one of the things that I had fought yesterday.

Taking a bite of the cake I started thinking about what I needed to get done today, as I did this, I realised that there was a symbol telling me that I had Skill increases waiting for me to check leftover from making my new Earth Armour spell yesterday and brought up the information as I took another bite of the cake.

Skill increased!

Spellcrafting increased to Lvl 2

Available Aspect points increased by 1

Well that makes sense, Earth Armour was a much more powerful (and expensive) spell than I had intended to make, so in some ways I was surprised that Spellcrafting had only gone up one Level.

Sighing my thoughts returned to the things I had to do today, I had ended up having to leave my axe behind when I escaped yesterday so the first thing to do would be to make a new weapon as I didn’t think that trying to retrieve it would be a good idea, besides making a new weapon would give me an opportunity to increase the Level of my Nature Shaping Skill. I had received a Skill for knife-fighting which was great considering how much more damage my knife did, but I still thought that using it as my main weapon would be a bad idea.

A few minutes later I had found the things I needed to make my new axe and sat down to make the handle, it was a bit easier than it had been the first time and thanks to this and my increased MP pool I decided to spend a bit more time working on it, paying special attention to how the Skill actually worked. However, in the end there wasn’t much that I could do to improve a handle, so it didn’t turn out all that different to the first one that I had made.

After meditating to recover my MP I then started working on the axe head, I kept the same basic design as I had for the last one but as before I spent more time working on it this time in the hopes of increasing the stats that the end product would have. Discovering a series of weaknesses in the piece of stone I was using I tried to fix this, eventually deciding to try using my Earth Affinity Mana when my normal Mana didn’t work. I ended up having to take a break part way through but when I had finished making the axe it quickly became obvious that this had been the right thing to do.

Crude Stone Hatchet

Weapon damage: 7-11

Durability: 9/9

This small axe was made by an amateur who is just learning to craft items, and this shows in the materials that they used to make the weapon and the design.

Although the increases to the stats weren’t much it was still nice to see that they had in fact improved and seeing that I once again had a Skill update waiting for me, I shook my head in exasperation as I brought up the information. My Skills seemed to be going up awfully fast, maybe I should ask the Admin about that the next time it contacted me?

Skill increased!

Nature Shaping increased to Lvl 3

Available Aspect points increased by 1

I now had four Aspect Points to spend but that wouldn’t give me the next lot of Stat bonuses for Aspect of the Mage and my Soul Aspect. I could do some more training, but I quickly decided that would be a waste of my increasingly limited time. I only had enough food to last me a couple more days unless I started rationing and I had yet to discover anything edible nearby and even then the barrier would still disappear in another four days so I had to become strong enough to survive without the protection it provided before then. In reality getting strong enough to survive without the Barrier was actually more important than finding something to eat thanks to my Biomass absorption Skill but even then that Skill could only increase how long I could survive without food by 5 days and I needed Essence to use it which required me to either actually use my Essence Drain Skill or find something to eat.

Getting to my feet I headed to the opposite side of the barrier from where I had passed through it yesterday. I wasn’t sure if the things that had tried to ambush me yesterday after killing one of their number would still be waiting to see of, I exited the barrier again but going to the opposite side should at the very least make it less likely that they would be waiting for me.

Approaching the barrier, I noted that I could see through it even more than I had been able to yesterday, it wasn’t transparent yet, but I could see more than just fuzzy outlines of things on the other side which I hoped would make seeing whether there was something that I could attempt to hunt or stay the hell away from on the other side.

Looking out through the barrier I couldn’t see anything that looked like something that I could actually hunt, I did find quite a large shape moving around but I didn’t have any confidence in being able to do anything against something that came up to my waist and looked like it was twice as heavy as I was when I could barely kill the thing that I had fought yesterday. From what I could see it looked like it was grazing on the grass-like stuff that coated the forest floor which told me that it probably wasn’t that dangerous but it could be territorial and besides suddenly walking out from the barrier could surprise it which probably wouldn’t end well for me so I chose to keep moving.

Just when I was about to turn around because I was getting too close to the area where I had been ambushed yesterday I saw something that looked promising scamper past me and after checking that there was nothing else nearby as best as I could without poking my head through the barrier like I had yesterday before doing just that as soon I was sure the thing that I was targeting looked like it was facing the other way.

Seeing it clearly for the first time was one hell of a trip and I just stood there staring at the strange creature which looked for all the world like a cross between some sort of primitive bird with colourful feathers and a chimpanzee rushing around snatching bugs out of the air with impressive dexterity. Suddenly it turned towards me cocking its feather covered head to one side in an extremely bird-like manner making me freeze in place wide eyed as I saw it’s face for the first time. Despite being covered in what looked like feathers its face more closely resembled that of an ape or monkey except for one thing; it had three eyes.

With a movement oddly reminiscent of a shrug the monkey thing turned back to what had caught its attention before it had turned around to look over its shoulder; a slender tree covered in fruit that it quickly clambered up to and started feasting on. Seeing as it either hadn’t noticed me or didn’t see me as a threat I relaxed slightly paying close attention to the fruit that it was eating, if this creature could eat these safely then there was at the very least a chance that I could as well. I kept observing the monkey-like creature for a bit longer in the hopes of learning more about it and hopefully increasing the level of my Zoology and Botany Skills by seeing if it ate any of the other plants nearby.

I didn’t learn too much more, only that the monkey-like creature I was watching was Level 2 when I used Identify which was a little intimidating considering the difficulty that I had with the thing I had fought the other day which had only been Level 1, but after watching it for as long as I had I was confident that I at least had a chance to defeat it as while it seemed to have good, Agility, Coordination and Perception (not seeming to notice me aside) that meant that it having high Constitution, Toughness or Vitality was unlikely, at least at Level 2.

Taking aim I fired a Stone Shot at the thing as it clambered up another tree and it turned towards with wide eyes just before the projectile struck before screeching in pain as the small stone slammed into its flank causing violet blood to spray into the air the colour catching me by surprise as the monkey thing dropped to the ground with a loud thump that left one of its arms dangling limply by its side when it made its way to its feet.

With another screech the creature decided to charge at me, claws springing from the fingers at the end of its undamaged arm as it ran. Quickly I started firing a couple of more Stone Shots at the thing as it ran towards me, but it easily dodged the projectiles, so I quickly cast Mana Blast sending the monkey thing tumbling backwards.

Quickly I drew my axe and charged towards the monkey-like creature and swung it down with all the force I could muster. But to my surprise the monkey flipped backwards as I sung my axe down, one of its feet smashing into my chin as it did so.

It was now my turn to tumble backwards as lights flashed in front of my eyes and blood filled my mouth. Shaking my head to clear the ringing I looked up just in time to see the monkey thing descending on me with claws outstretched. Quickly I raised my axe in the hopes of stopping the thing from attacking me with its front paws as it landed on my chest, its feet forcing the breath from my lungs as they slammed into me but I did manage to stop it from clawing me to death by blocking the attack with my axe. After struggling with the creature for a while I managed to get a leg between us and kick it away before scrambling to my feet.

By now my entire body was covered in bruises from the monkey’s feet, it had stamped on me more than a few times in the struggle and I could swear that I had at the very least a cracked rib if not outright broken. We were now basically on an even footing, at least in terms of how injured we were, I still had a slight advantage because I had a longer reach and ranged attacks but with the creature’s speed, I wasn’t sure how much of an advantage there really was.

We stood there watching each other for a bit, I could swear I could see what looked like a hint of respect in the beast’s three eyes suggesting that it had some form of intelligence which almost made me break off the attack and try to retreat back through the barrier. What stopped me was the vicious snarl on the things face, even if it was more intelligent than most beasts it obviously still wanted to kill me and I knew that the moment I tried to retreat it would take that as a sign of weakness and try even harder to kill me and in my current state I wasn’t sure that I would even be able to make the few meters back to the barrier without the much more nimble beast killing me.

With a scream of rage it charged at me once more and this time I roared back and raised my axe to meet its charge, the stone blade smashing into its injured arm with a gruesome crunch as the claws on its other hand slashed across my chest tearing through my shirt and the flesh beneath with ease but it was now clear that in a head on fight I had the advantage so I decided to push it.

Lashing out with a kick I knocked the thing onto its back once more, this time following up with a Mana Bolt to make sure it stayed down before once more winding up and bringing my axe down on its head to finish it off.

Panting I looked down at the twitching body for a few seconds as I suddenly realised how foolhardy my actions had been. I had almost died fighting what should have been a much weaker foe despite its higher Level and yet I had decided to push my luck. Deciding not to waste any more time I quickly slung the body over my shoulder and ran back through the barrier. No way in hell I was I going to get caught out by an ambush two days in a row, and besides I wanted to do a dissection of the corpse to learn as much as I could about it before using my Essence Drain Skill for the first time.

Once I had made my way back to the clearing, I put the body down on the side opposite where the spring was so as not to accidentally contaminate my only supply of clean water and filled up the bowl that I had for washing myself before returning to the body. Drawing my knife, I started to cut open the corpses stomach noting as I did so I noticed that what I had thought were feathers didn’t actually seem to be feathers, or at least not feathers in the way that I knew them. If I had to describe what they were I would be unable to tell you exactly but they were more like plates of some semi-rigid material like a finger nail which was interesting and I hypothesised that they were supposed to act as something like the armoured scales of a pangolin when the monkey got stronger but for now they were pretty useless as a defence. Reaching inside the stomach cavity I suddenly choked as a foul stench billowed up towards me.

“Jeez,” I gasped as I started pulling out its purplish innards. “And to think I thought it smelled bad on the outside!”

Snorting slightly the reference I reached back inside and pulled out what seemed to be the things stomach and cut it open with my knife, sure enough a disgusting combination of insect parts, fruit pulp and what passed for this things stomach acid poured out making me gag once more.

“Alright I gasped,” when I could finally breathe again. “I don’t see anything larger than an insect in here, so it probably doesn’t usually go after anything bigger than that, at least not when its only Level 2.”

Not really discovering anything more interesting there I decided to try and identify any other organs that I could. Taking my axe tried to open up its chest cavity, using the axe blade to chop through what turned out to be a solid piece of bone as opposed to ribs and prying its chest open with the spike on the other end.

Looking inside I found another surprise. The organs were badly damaged by my rough treatment but to me it looked like this thing had two hearts and a single large lung that looked like it had a collection of sacks that encircled the two hearts which were situated on opposite sides of the chest. Picking up my knife I cut open the throat to confirm this theory and discovered that I was right about the lung.

“Well that’s interesting,” I muttered then blinked as I remembered that monkeys back on earth were considered delicacies by some people back on earth, although from what I remembered that was mostly the brains. “Hmm, well it’s worth a try, it looks like its part bird as well so it’s worth a try.”

My stomach turned slightly as I remembered the intelligence that had lurked in the beast’s eyes, but I still used my knife to remove some of the meat from its muscular legs and placed the strips of meat on a nearby rock before standing back up.

“Right, well I guess it’s finally time to try out this Skill,” I said raising my hand and activating my Essence Drain Skill. What happened next almost made me leap out of my own skin. Glowing green tentacles shot out of my hand and stabbed into the remains of the monkey creature and started pulsing. With each pulse the body became more and more withered and soon I was staring at a mummified corpse as the tentacles went back inside my hand with a disgusting slurping sound.

“Welp that was gross,” I said staring at my hand in disgust. My hand didn’t look any different to how it had before, so apparently the tentacles didn’t actually hurt me when I activated the Skill, but it was still pretty creepy to watch. “I wonder how much Essence that gave me anyway.”

Status

Level 1

Exp: 28%

HP: 89/110

MP: 23/101

HP Regen: 8.1 per minute

MP Regen: 6.1 per minute

SP: 64/64

Essence: 11

SP Regen:6.9 per minute

Str: 5 (+1/Lvl)

Agi: 7 (+3/Lvl)

Con: 14 (+ 4/Lvl)

End: 8 (+5/Lvl)

Tou: 14 (+2/Lvl)

Int: 12 (+13/Lvl)

Coor: 9 (+5/Lvl)

Vit: 14 (+4/Lvl)

Wis: 7 (+5/Lvl)

Will: 16 (+10/Lvl)

Per: 10 (+10/Lvl)

Cha: 8 (+5/Lvl)

Additional Growth Rate: +6 Unassigned Stat Points/Lvl.

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

Reading through my Status made my eyebrows raise in surprise; the remains of the monkey had given me 11 Essence which meant that I could use my Biomass absorption Skill to restore 20 HP if I needed to. This actually seemed like quite a lot but until I had something to compare it to it was difficult to say whether that was actually the case. I was also now 28% of the way to Level 2 which meant that killing that one monkey had given me around 19% of the experience I needed. This was quite interesting as the monkey thing had been alone and relatively easy to kill which meant that hunting things like that would actually be safer than hunting the starfish things from the other day. I knew that I would have to deal with the starfish creatures at some point, but I would probably try and avoid doing so until I had Levelled Up and could cast more spells before running out of MP.

I was definitely not in any mood to try the monkey meat right now thanks to my Essence Drain Skill, so I decided to try and come up with a name for the thing. After considering my options for a few minutes I decided to call it a Feathered Chimp for now, the name wasn’t entirely accurate, but it would serve as a placeholder for now until I knew a bit more about them.

Once I had done this, I decided to go over my new Skills and Skill increases before cleaning myself off and going back outside the barrier to try and harvest some of the fruit that I had seen the Feathered Chimp eating.

Axe Mastery Unlocked!

This Skill improves your ability to use axes and similar weapons. Allows the User to learn axe-related weapons skills.

Increases Growth Rate by 1 Strength.

1 Aspect Point Awarded for unlocking Axe Mastery.

Chop Unlocked!

An attack that deals a small amount of extra damage. Cost: 5 SP

Increases Growth Rate by 1 Strength.

1 Aspect Points Awarded for unlocking Chop.

Dissection Unlocked!

This Skill improves your ability to learn more about how a creature functions by examining both the inside and outside of its body.

Increases Growth Rate by 1 Intelligence.

1 Aspect Point Awarded for unlocking Dissection.

“Only three Skills this time,” I mused to myself, it was good to see that I had finally unlocked Axe Mastery and its corresponding Weapon Skill. Dissection was an interesting and welcome addition to my Skill set as well especially with the increase to the Growth rate of my Intelligence as it looked like it would synergise well with my Zoology Skill.

Now that I had done this as per usual, I moved on to checking my Skill increases.

Skills increased!

Mana Bolt increased to Lvl 3

Stone Shot increased to Lvl 2

Zoology increased to Lvl 2

Dissection increased to Lvl 2

Available Aspect points increased by 4

This was a pretty good haul of Skill increases that raised the number of Aspect points that I had to 12 which was more than enough to complete my Aspect of the Mage but before doing that I decided to go and wash myself off. The sensations of blood slowly drying on my hands and chest was quite an unpleasant one.