Chapter 15

The night James experienced was a long one and filled with worry about if he would even live through it. There were times when he even fell asleep until the next loud bang when whatever creature was attacking the metal chest hit it hard enough to jolt him. This caused the open area in his cave to decrease to the point of a coffin. Air itself become an issue when being buried alive even if it is of your own free will so little hole were all that allowed air to come in.

The first nights over

Almost in a ball under the tree a single ray of light was piercing the inside and into his right eye confirming it was now daytime so he started pushing the box off of him. Due to the cramped conditions and how impacted the chest was it had taken nearly an hour to free himself.

Freedom my name is James!

For a reward of his efforts James body was bathed in sunlight, he started to throw both of his arms up in the air but had to spot due to the pain. Looking down at his make shift bandaged James decided to open it up to see how bad it looked. Pulling back his cape was done carefully, when he got to the final layer it was sticking to his skin. With it uncoiled from his arm it landed on the ground noticeably heavier form the blood it sucked up during the night.

Forcing himself to look at the price he paid for saving his life it was clearly a high one. A bone from his middle finger was sticking out and all the others expect for his thumb seemed broken. His skin on his entire hand seemed to have changed into the pain rainbow of black, blue and everything in between. The hand would no longer be useable until some magical help come around and there was no clear time of when that was happening.

Ya I don’t want to look at this thing

James waddled over to his cape on the ground and sat on the dirty side with blood and ripped the clean part off wrapping it around his hand and arm. James looked over at the chest since he was a few feet away and could see the other side of it. There were only light scratches and it even still kept its shine.

Magic… magic saved me and now it’s keeping me away from potions that could most likely fix my hand

It was at this point James finally noticed how the sickness he felt for days on the raft had lessen. [Poison Resistance] had risen to the point that it could start to combat the infection but it would have to be much higher to completely do away with it fast. Still he was happy for any good new rather than negative and counted it as a good way to start the day.

First thing first James decided was to walk around the edge of the flat hill and see if there was anything down below. In order to make a complete circle he had to waddle for just over minutes, he noticed nothing but there was a good chance his [Perception] was not high enough to see then the average creature that was below.

To decide in greater detail the area he was in the tree James hide under was in the center of the flat hill top and nearly four feet wide. There were slightly more than a dozen trees up there and the only easy way up was to his south the shore or the north which also had an earth ramp leading into the forest.

I refuse to sleep in such a small place again, this whole day will be spent making more room

That was what James got started on by trying to find the sharpest rock he could by flipping over the rocks that lined his “home tree.” Looking under the rocks made him realize how much he needed to eat. The issue was that the thought of eating bugs sickened him.

How did it get to this point, why do I have to do this?

Of course James knew the need to eat was something that could not be avoided for a later date. Facts about how other cultures eating bugs was perfectly normal and sometimes good for you he forced himself to think about as he reached down and grabbed worms and other incest’s that find under the rocks. James closed his eyes and forced his hand to stay over his mouth as he started to chew. Feeling pitiful and disgusted by what he felt and tasted as the incest’s moved in his mouth until he chewed enough. Repeating this three more times until he could no longer force himself to eat anymore James stayed in a ball for some time due to how sorry he felt for himself.

Staying like this will just make tonight as bad as it was last night. Have to focus on making things better and getting use to eating and doing things I don’t like. Will make my new home super cool…. Like multi-level and a pool. That sounds great, should get working on it right away

Using his free hand to get himself up James made his way to the entrance of his Cave with rock in hand and started the slow process of making more room. Every so often he would take breaks to rest and standing at the edge of the hill and looking below but never saw anything. Ever so slowly and through the heat of an enclosed space the cave started to get bigger. [Digging] leveled of twice that day making the more just a little bit faster each time.

Using the entire day for digging resulted in the space under that was only enough room at first for his body to fit in to being able to stand with it wide enough to reach his arms out. What was left of the raft was pulled inside and used as flooring, there was even a small hole for a constant stream of air to get in.

[One Condition reached]

This popped up for James when his [Digging] skill leveled up for the second time but no more enough about the pop up came up. There was a sizeable pile of clay that built up at the entrance and he was covered with it At first he was just going to leave it there but then an idea came to him, he pushed the piled about three feet from the entrance and started to make a wall with it.

There was not nearly enough to do what he hand planned but it was a start with it being two feet long, two high, three inches thick just to keep the three number going again that day. As he dug more the wall would become thick enough to stand on and completely surround the tree but it was enough for today.

It may take a while but a castle of sticks and stones will be made by my hand! I wonder if there’s anything to ride down there.

Tomorrow would be when James would head down there and explore what was below him, he wanted to get stronger even if that meant being unsure how much stronger what he choose to fight is compared to himself. As night started to come again James was already inside his home sitting on the floor, the chest blocking the entrance. The difference was this time the lock was faced outside.

I may not be strong enough to break it open but I have complete faith there is some screwed up roid creature out there that wanted to kill me for no reason willing to break through the chest to get to me

When the noises started and clawed at the chest James was no longer worried as much as before. In fact as those creatures tried to break through and eat him he was thinking about finding something to make a bed and finding real meat. This whole grueling process had taken almost a week but it was time for the comeback.