New World Day 6

Prizes in hand, I walked back across the street to my house with a spring in my step. I stored the tails, water, the two lanterns from the rock wall and the rifle in the garage for now. I kept the shotgun with me for safety’s sake and picked my way through the lightly forested area on the right side of the house to the fire pit that lay there. The fire pit was made from a group of concrete blocks set in an oval pattern. There were a pair of blackened steel grates that rested on the concrete blocks and covered the top of the fire pit. Gravel covered the ground around the fire pit, and the fire pit was surrounding by four old but lovingly maintained wooden benches and one wooden preparation table. I intended to take everything here, except for the gravel, and move it to the lawn in front of the house.

The benches and table weren’t hard to move, but the blocks proved to be quite a pain. They weren’t that heavy individually. However, there were a lot of them, and carrying them to the front of the house while keeping any eye on my surroundings for any dangers drained me more than I expected. It took me at least an hour or two to move everything, and that was without taking any breaks. By the time I was finished, my arms and shoulders were aching something fierce. Despite the pain, I smiled in delight as I surveyed my completed fire pit.

Now that I was finished setting up the fire pit, It was time to gather some wood and cook the crayfish tails. It wasn’t hard to get the wood for the fire afterall there were trees and shrubs all around, and I had a lighter from the house that I could use to start the fire. The smell that would spread out into the afternoon air from the cooking food worried me though. I would have my shotgun on hand, but if the black barbed snake came for my food from the barn I wasn’t sure it would be of any use. Still, I was taking enough chances as it is just eating them at all. I wasn’t about to try and eat the tails raw. With that thought firmly in mind, I decided to take the chance and cook the tails. If worse came to worst and something did come to steal my food I would just run and hide in the basement hopefully with at least one tail in hand.

Decision made, I went down to the garage and grabbed the four tails, the big knife from my backpack, and some cajun spices before I strolled back up to my new fire pit. Using the knife I peeled the shells off of the four tails and sprinkled the cajun spices all over the four tails. Finished with my preparations, I lit my pile of twigs on fire and when the blaze was really going I added a few logs that I grabbed from the old fire pit area onto the fire. Next I tossed the steel grates over the fire and plopped the tails onto the raging fire. Pretty soon there was a delicious scent floating in the air. Maybe these tails were going to be more delicious than I expected! I flipped the tails a couple of times and added a bit of spice on each flip. I was just about to take them off the fire and go into the basement to eat when I heard a disconcerting sound. Multiple disconcerting sounds actually. A light rattle came from the direction of the barn, an immense thump came from near the edge of the lake, and the cry of a giant bird spread through the sky.

My body reacted before my mind could catch up. I grabbed one of the tails off of the fire ignoring the searing pain that shot up through my hand from the burning hot tail and kicked the rest of them away from the fire towards the barn. My pants leg naturally caught on fire, and I had to roll on the ground to put it out. Rolling away towards the house I caught sight of a giant yellow and green bird dive down from the sky to try and grab one of the tails in its talons only to have to unleash a powerful flap of its wings to stop its dive and avoid a barrage of barbed scales that flew through the air right above the tails. The black barbed python lay coiled together not 20 yards from the fire pit except for its long tail which it had just flicked forward to send the volley of scales at the unknown bird. The python didn’t get a chance to grab the tails either though. It had to quickly slither to the side to dodge a gigantic yellow frog. The frog’s enormous belly smashed into the ground with such force that it sank five feet into the ground. An ear popping ribbit reverberated through the air as the frog staked its claim on the tails. Three dangerous beasts all had come to try and steal my dinner! I guess I wasn’t the only one who thought the smell of the tails was delicious! I was extremely interested in seeing who the winner of the beastly royal rumble would be, but I didn’t want to be the desert. So, I took my single tail and high tailed it to my basement hideout. Once inside, I turned on one of the lanterns to give myself some light while I settled in to wait out the fight. The sounds and vibrations of fighting continued for over ten minutes before finally subsiding.

Breathing out a sigh of relief that the fighting seemed to be over, I turned my attention to my dinner. The smell was really causing me to drool. I was impressed with myself that I hadn’t eaten it right after I got into the garage, and I was actually looking forward to eating it except of course for the flakes of melted skin that my hand had left on it. I flexed my hand multiple times trying to get some feeling back into it. I could see my regen skill in action fixing my hand up. Pieces of blistered skin fell away and new unblemished pieces replaced them before my eyes. Tearing my eyes away from the gruesome burns, I thought, “Best to eat it while it’s still hot!” I peeled off my skin fragments and chomped down on the white meaty tail. A delicious and slightly spicy taste spread through my mouth. This tail was the tastiest thing I had ever eaten! Was that crayfish just naturally filled with flavor or did all magic creature taste this good? The taste was so divine that I devoured the entire tail in under a minute. No wonder those beasts had all come to try and steal my food! If I had known it tasted this good I might have been tempted to fight it out with them. Of course now came the potentially dangerous part of waiting and seeing if there was anything harmful in the tail. While I waited, I started up my normal training routine. Pushups, sit-ups, axe training, and then working on the creation of my mana veins. I kept as busy as I could training while I monitored the System with one eye to see if my resistances went up or my Status changed. I could see their experience bars steadily increase as the night wore on, and considering all three went up multiple times it was a damn good thing I had bought them all! That tail must have been riddled with unseen dangers, or was there some special way to cook magical creatures?

I spent quite a while pondering over the issue of the crayfish tail, but in the end I didn’t have enough information yet to figure out if it was the tail itself that was the issue or my cooking methods. For now, I decided to work on the water that I had taken from the cow pond while I thought of how to cook food in the future without attracting terrifying beasts to my home. I took all of the water from the garage area and brought it into the workshop. Then I took out a nice clean bucket and a strainer. Finally, I began pouring the bottles of water through the strainer and into the bucket. Most of the pond scum and mud that had gotten mixed into the water was strained out, and the water in the bucket now had a much clearer complexion. It wasn’t at the same level as commercially sold bottle water or even tap water, but it at least looked drinkable now.

Mindlessly, I continued pouring water through the strainer and into the bucket. Occasionally, I had to clean out the strainer, but mostly I was able to concentrate on my food problems. I was reasonably certain that it was the smell of the tails and the smoke from the fire that had attracted the beasts to my fire. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any way to isolate the smoke or the smell. I could start up the generator and cook inside the house. However, that had its own set of problems. I didn’t have much gas for the generator, and all of the windows were broken in the house already. So, the smell would still leak out into the surrounding area. It might not spread as far, but it would still get out there. To make matters worse, if one of those beasts still caught the scent they might destroy the house itself in their scramble to steal my food. Since I couldn’t stop the spread of the smell and smoke, then I would have to come at the issue from a different direction. Perhaps if I cooked the food at different times of day I might find a time where those beasts were out hunting and had no time to come bother me, and if that didn’t work then I would have to come up with a deterrent of some kind. Something that would make those beasts too afraid of me or my food to come attack me ever again. A poison of some sort most likely. I would have to keep an eye out for that type of thing.

As that thought crossed my mind, I reached out for another bottle, but my fingers grasped only empty air. Looking over, I saw that I had finished straining all of the water from the pond. Time for a test run? Cautiously, I took a clean cup from one of the nearby shelves and dipped it into the bucket of water. The water rushed into the cup and filled it to the brim with a slightly opaque water. I slowly raised the cup to my lips and took a small sip. A slightly sweet taste permeated my taste buds as the water swished through my mouth and down my throat. Against all odds it tasted great! Quickly I drained the entire glass and smacked my lips in satisfaction. Exquisite!

Did the new energies rampaging through the world cause everything to taste better? I couldn’t help but wonder if this delicious water tasted like crap to those who were born into a world where such energies always existed. Maybe only people like myself who were newly exposed to them could properly appreciate the exceptional taste. Or maybe I was just overthinking things. I would need to try some different water sources and eat some different beasts before I could really make a good guess about the source of the taste. Still, the taste of the water was good news. It was a bit difficult to acquire, but I now had a source of good food and water! Now I just needed to experiment a bit to see if there was a way to safely cook my food. Yawning, I put a hand up to cover my mouth and realized it was getting pretty late. Time to head to bed. I had done enough for today. I could continue my experiments and training in the morning!

Endurance increased by 1!

Survivor (B) * leveled up!

Fool (B) * leveled up!

Basic Mana Control (B) * leveled up!

Basic Regen (Passive) (B) * leveled up!

Basic Poison Resist (Passive) (B) * leveled up!

Basic Poison Resist (Passive) (B) * leveled up!

Basic Disease Resist (Passive) (B) * leveled up!

Basic Disease Resist (Passive) (B) * leveled up!

Basic Parasite Resist (Passive) (B) * leveled up!

Basic Parasite Resist (Passive) (B) * leveled up!

Name: Jason Silver

Job Name: N/A

LVL: 3 52%

Job LVL: N/A 0%

Job Points:

N/A

N/A

Titles:

Survivor (B) LVL 4 02%

Fool (B) LVL 5 10%

Pack Killer (B) LVL 3 81%

Beast Killer (B) LVL 3 76%

Risk Taker (B) LVL 3 50%

Repeated Risk Taker ( C ) LVL 2 90%

Compassionate Fool ( C ) LVL 1 78%

Curious Fool ( C ) LVL 1 0%

Stupid Fool ( C ) LVL 1 0%

Title Points:

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3

Stats:

HP:

MP:

Mana Regen:

Endurance:

Strength:

Speed:

Bonus Points:

103/125

10/10

2 per min (-1.75)

12

9

7

9

Status Effects:

Regen, Disease Resist, Parasite Resist, Poison Resist

Skills:

Basic Axe Mastery (B) LVL 7 56%

Basic Gun Mastery (B) LVL 4 78%

Basic Regen (Passive) (B) LVL 8 19%

Basic Disease Resist (Passive) (B) LVL 3 80%

Basic Parasite Resist (Passive) (B) LVL 3 90%

Basic Poison Resist (Passive) (B) LVL 3 20%

Basic Mana Control (B) LVL 6 48%

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