Melody spent her night digging out more of the Homely Tree insides, occasionally resting and checking on her fire to make sure her meat got smoked.

While digging, she found the Sapwood Layer was like laying on stiff memory foam. After testing to see that it returned to its original shape when she got off it, she decided what her future bed would be made out of.

Sensing no dangers nearby, she pulled her spikes to the side and crawled outside.

After drinking from the spring, taking her smoked meat off the smoker, she ate and started on her goals for the day.

After re-salting the boar hide, Melody started on her first project to build a door for her tree. She started on the outside frame. Making a square frame with a cross in the center, threaded twine through the smaller squares and wrapped the outside with the cloak and backpack leftovers. She tested the cover over the door and found it needed a bit more reinforcement. Melody took some time to create some more twine from bark and strengthen the frame.

Next, she attached the outer frame to nine-inch-long logs that stuck out from the outer cover. At the back end of the extensions, she started building a new structure that would act as a hook to keep the outer cover in place. Seven logs were tied on at different intervals to allow her to put a wood bar between them to hold the door in place.

Once fully assembled, Melody carried her new door over to her hovel, crawled inside, and hooked the door in place. It wasn’t perfect in sealing the opening, but it would be enough to slow something down for defense.

Now that her door was done after three hours of work, the next project Melody had was to set up traps. The first one she wanted to make was a pitfall trap with spikes. Since she knew the Reaper Wolf was in the area, she needed to prepare.

Heading away from her camp to the west where she last saw the wolf, Melody began to dig in an open area with a makeshift stone shovel she made last night.

Melody took a break every so often to eat and drink, but after eight hours, she finished digging her hole. It was a six-by-six-by-five-foot hole.

She looked up to see that the sky was starting to turn dark. Climbing out of her pit, Melody headed back to her camp for the night.

Melody was sitting by her campfire as she sharpened the eighteenth stick for her pit trap. Each post was an average of two to three inches thick and around three and a half feet long. Melody continued working because she didn’t want to sleep. So long as she was awake and busy, the nightmare would not come for her.

Since she had been in the world, Melody never had the need to sleep. She found it strange and could not figure out why. The giants would sleep and nod off when they were tired, but Melody was the exception. So her working through the night did not bother her so long as she ate, stayed hydrated, and rested occasionally. She was guessing it maybe had something to do with her reincarnation since the god who did it screwed up and made her a giant.

Hours had passed, and Melody could see the sky was beginning to change color. Smiling, Melody finished her twentieth spike post and started to climb the tallest tree near her camp.

Near the top was Melody’s new favorite branch. It gave her a clear view above most of the forest top, allowing her to see the sunrise. The forest was quiet, and Melody felt at peace.

Sighing as the sky turned from hues of orange and pink to blue, Melody returned to the ground to work.

Melody had two primary goals to complete this day. The first was to finish her spike trap for the Reaper Wolf. The other was to make a bow.

The last couple of days, she could not find anything good to use for the bow and the string yet going west. Today she was going to scout to the east.

Melody tied the spikes together and hoisted them up on her back like a pack, and headed to her pit.

Melody arrived to see that her pit was just like it was when she left it. Hopping down inside, she dropped her load to the ground and took out her knife. Using it, Melody dug several evenly spaced small holes in a five by five grid and roughly six inches deep. Melody would push and twist the spike as deep as she could get it, pile in the excess dirt, pack it down with her hammer, add more soil and repeat packing it. Once she was satisfied that the spike was solid, Melody installed the rest she had.

It took her a few hours, but Melody finished getting all of the spikes in place. She only had to make an additional five to sate her OCD, but her pitfall was coming together. Melody went about and cut a lot of long and thin branches and began laying them over the pit. Once she had enough sticks in place, Melody added some large leaves, dry fallen leaves, and small sticks. By the time Melody finished covering the trap, it looked like a part of the forest. Taking a few short posts, Melody hammered them into the ground at the corners of the pit to make sure she did not fall for it herself on accident.

Happy that her anti-Reaper Wolf measure was in place, she began to practice jumping, off to the side, the entire length of the trap to see if she could make it. The first couple of times, she would have fallen. The third and fourth, she almost made it. On the fifth attempt, she activated Charge a few feet before the line, jumped, and quickly cleared the trap. Having her plan and trap in place, Melody returned to her camp for lunch, and then she would scout to the east.

A couple of hours had passed since Melody began looking around the eastern section around her camp. She was happy that she found some Loca Grass in the area and added it to her leather satchel. Melody also found a few more Durgan Roots, a couple of Sweety Sprigs, and caught a rabbit. She had spent so much time looking and had yet to find a decent wood to act as a bow. The wood was either too brittle, stiff, rigid, or flexible. By the third hour, she found both items she had been searching for.

Wattaqa Tree: A tree of durable wood and hard, smooth bark.

Steel Vine: A thin and very dense plant vine. Grows in large amounts. Typically grows on durable trees due to weight.

Melody searched around the Wattaqa for a bit before finding a long branch about five feet long. It was smooth and had no leaves or branches coming off of it. After cutting it loose, Melody turned her attention to the Steel Vine.

Many vines were about six feet long, so she didn’t have to worry about finding the correct size. Taking hold of one, she tried cutting it with her knife, and it barely scuffed the surface.

“Oh…” Melody felt this was going to take a while.

Fours hours later, after much sawing, hacking, crying, screaming, and cursing, the vine broke free.

“FINALLY!” Melody cheered and huffed in frustration.

Taking deep breaths to calm herself, she pensively double-checked the length to the bow stave.

“Oh, thank Nova.” She sighed, seeing she had enough.

Looking up, the sky was showing that it was getting close to nightfall. After stowing her, painstaking to get, prize in her bag, Melody headed home with her bow stave in hand.

Melody got back to her camp, finding it unchanged. She felt emotionally exhausted and wanted to curl up in her hole. After eating and drinking, Melody crawled into her spot for the night.

Melody started awake from her nightmare. Rul was not in it this time, just her mother. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

Taking a deep breath and smacking her cheeks, she checked for danger outside and crawled out into the morning sunlight.

Melody hopped into the spring for a quick magic bath and drank her fill. After climbing out, she started a fire to help dry her off, ate some breakfast, and began working on her bow.

Standing the bow straight and putting some force down on it, the branch bowed out. With this, Melody knew which was the front and back of the stave. Using her knife, she notched a couple of lines in the middle to mark the handhold. Melody shaved away at the backside bit by bit until the bow stave was a nice even curve. Picking up the Steel Vine, she tied a bowstring knot at one end. Melody notched each end of the bow stave for the vine to settle in and looped the bowstring into place. Bending the bow stave once more, she measured out where the second knot would go and looped the new knot into place.

“Bow complete!” Melody cheered.

She ‘twanged’ the bow a few times before she got started on making some arrows. The best wood she found for these was the Salt Bark Tree. Its branches were very stiff and grew straight, and because of the salt, the wood was dry and light.

Notching one end, Melody slipped the stone arrowhead she created into place and secured it with twine. Anytime Melody was scouting around, she made sure to collect any feathers she could find. Before long, Melody had a finished stone arrow in hand, feather fletching and all.

Standing with her bow and new arrow, she took aim at a tree about twenty feet away. Standing sideways with her feet shoulder length apart, Melody extended her bow arm and drew the stone arrow back. Calmly, she took and held a deep breath and released the arrow, only to miss badly.

“Oh… This looks way easier in videos… I have some practice to do.” Melody fidgeted nervously and went after her errant arrow.

Melody spent a week training herself in using her bow, rapidly moving through the forest, using her Charge skill, and carving out more space in the Homely Tree. She now had an eight by eight by eight-foot cube inside the tree. Melody had also carefully carved out an eight by five by four-inch-thick Sapwood mattress for herself. She was still plagued by her nightmares, but she stopped feeling stiff in the morning. Now Melody had a new issue.

“I am almost out of meat.” Melody checked over her storage corner. She planned to make a shelf at some point, but Melody was down to her last bits of meat.

Melody picked up her bow, her twenty arrows, knife, hatchet, and a bit of food. It was time for Melody to hunt.

For a few hours, Melody stalked through the forest, staying hidden with her air blending skill. She had gotten good enough with it now that she could lightly jog while using it. It would not be long before she could use it freely with no penalty.

Melody stopped and sniffed the air. Moving toward the scent, she found what she smelled.

“Poop.” She had found a pile of dung on the ground. Using a nearby stick, she broke it up, “Hot, fresh, plant fibers. It shouldn’t be too far.”

Melody was feeling excited, using more of her survival knowledge.

Checking the ground around the dung pile, she found some hoof prints. Searching a bit further, she found more leading away to the south. Melody smiled, and her eyes sharpened. The boar had been for revenge, but this time would be her first actual hunt. Melody hoped she would succeed.

A large gray-colored deer partook of some low-hanging leaves from a tree. The brush nearby shifted, and the deer went on alert, ready to take on whatever came for it. A small horned rabbit hopped out of the foliage and looked up at the deer. The larger animal lowered its head and sniffed at the rabbit before the tiny creature jumped away, back into the brush.

Confidant, it was safe, the deer raised its head back up to eat a few more leaves before pain screamed through its chest.

Turning toward where the pain came from, it lowered its head and activated its skills. The deer blasted forward, its hardened bone skull ready to break what thing attacked it. Breaking through the brush, it thrashed its head and straight horns about to hit nothing but air.

The deer looked around, not seeing or sensing anything near it. It felt exhausted once its skills ran out and its heart began to slow. It would be acceptable to take a nap here. Its side was not hurting that much anymore. The deer laid down, oh so tired and cold. It would sleep for a bit and snack later.

Melody watched as the gray deer flopped over on its side. Where her arrow hit was no longer gushing as much blood as it was when it began to attack.

“I must have hit near the heart.” Melody approached the deer and found that it had stopped breathing altogether.

As her adrenaline came down and her heartbeat returned to normal, she laughed.

“I! DID! IT!” She cheered and danced happily. Melody had successfully hunted her first game.

Crash Deer (Dead): Name: None. Age: 21. Danger Level: None

Crash Deer (Male). Herbivore. Skittish around larger predators. Quickly runs away if in danger. Will aggressively fight back if danger level is perceived low. Hardened bone on forehead used to ram enemies and then uses horizontal horns to gore its target.

Melody basked in her success a bit more before she got to work. Using a rope, Melody strung the corpse up and dug a hole beneath it.

“Okay, come on, Melody, you got this.” Taking her knife and grabbing one of the horns, Melody slit the throat. A bit of blood came out quickly but then trickled.

Melody sighed in relief that the deer was not as bad as the boar had been, but she guessed that the reason for it was because the animal rapidly bled out earlier.

Pulling the corpse a bit higher in the air, Melody climbed a nearby tree and blended in. If a predator picked up the scent of blood and came looking, she would be safe.

After waiting for thirty minutes, Melody checked the deer to find that no more blood was flowing out. Satisfied, she lowered the corpse while checking for any dangers nearby. Taking a couple large leaves and twine, she tied off the neck and around the arrow wound to prevent any blood from making a trail back to her camp. The last thing she did was fill the hole with dirt.

“Now, I think I should be strong enough if everything so far has been a telltale.” Melody huffed and hoisted the dear onto her shoulders. “Huh, not as heavy as I thought….” She shrugged, blended in, and headed home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A large black wolf sniffed around the ground. It smelled somewhat old blood, hours old. It smelled all around the area but could not pick up any more scents. Another predator got its prey. It wanted that juicy deer. Now it would have to hunt the new predator. It already got rid of the lizard. The wolf would get rid of this one too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Melody sighed as she dropped the deer to the ground. “Finally home!” She got a drink from the spring and ate a few Hard Berries and half of her remaining boar meat.

“I wish I had a vase or something, then I could cure the meat. I got the salt.” Melody dropped her stuff off in her tree and went to prep the deer.

Using posts and twine, Melody tied the legs of the back-laying deer, spread out to the sides.

“Okay, got to be careful not to pierce any organs this time. Clean up on the boar was rough….” Melody lamented her troubles from last time.

Grabbing a bit of the soft fur and pulling it taught, Melody lightly cut just above the crotch of the deer until she had a decent incision. Using one hand to press down the internal organs and the other to cut, Melody slowly and carefully cut her way up to the ribs. To no avail, her tusk knife could not cut through them. After some careful thought, Melody sliced the flesh down the ribs. She reached in and cleanly snapped the ribs from one side of the sternum. Once done, Melody spread the chest open.

“Next is to cut the esophagus, and I should be able to roll everything out.” Melody listed off the next step to herself.

Searching inside, she found and cut the esophagus, any remaining flesh holding the organs in place, and rolled all the guts out of the deer.

Cutting out the remaining bits of the intestine connecting the organs to the body, Melody separated out all the organs while identifying them.

Crash Deer Liver: High Nutrition value. Gives a temporary boost to dexterity.

Crash Deer Heart: If eaten, cooked, or raw, it will give a permanent boost to stamina and dexterity.

The rest of the organs were the same as last time, so she planned to dice and bury them for her future garden.

It took her an hour, but she now had the hide removed with minimal mistakes, and the brain was free from the skull.

Crash Deer Brain: If eaten, cooked, or raw, it will give a minor chance to learn a skill of Crash Deer.

“Yes! I hope I get another skill. I got nothing from that rabbit.” Melody grumbled as she began to butcher the deer.

Another hour passed, and Melody had her smoker going on the first couple of trays of deer meat and the heart and brain cooking above the fire.

“Whew! This was much easier than last time.” Melody commented as she finished preparing the last bit of the deer. “I’m getting better! I am a true survivor!” She declared and giggled.

It took several hours into the night, but Melody finished smoking all her meat and learned a new skill. Now that her cooking was done and the sun was coming up, it was time to test her acquired ability.

“Ram!” Melody felt a burst of energy in her body and what felt like an airy film over her skin. She ran toward a target log she set up and sent it flying several feet away.

“WOO! That is so cool!” Taking a stance of crossing one leg in front of the other, one arm across her chest, the other raised up, covering half her face, “Call me, The Skill Eater.”

Melody immediately shuddered at what she had done. “Yeah, never go full anime, too cringy.”

The life Melody was living was looking up. She still wished she had someone to talk to, but for now, she will survive with all of her growing might.