Oliver woke up sweating as he opened his eyes in the grass and moss near the babbling brook. He was unsure how much time had elapsed as he had simply fallen asleep due to sheer exhaustion.
A night without any dreams still lingered in his now returning consciousness. He looked around again, as if in disbelief that he was truly in this lush and vibrant deciduous forest. He was not an expert in plants and was unable to determine the species of the tree that grew around them. The leaves came in varying shapes, some broad and flat, others pointy and star shaped. He thought of the maple trees that could be found almost anywhere down south in Montreal, but these trees seemed to be oddly distinct.
He took the time to look around, hoping to find a plant that had some sort of fruit. There were vines that grew on the bark of the larger trees, ferns with large palm-like fronds, shrubs that clung low to the ground, and between all the different low ground species lay smatterings of mosses, seedlings, saplings and grasses.
While most of these plants looked familiar, he could not place any of the names of these plants. Secondly, none of these plants seemed to have edible fruits or nuts attached to them. Oliver wondered if he might be in a dormancy season where the plants just grew without trying to propagate.
Oliver took off his glove, revealing the frostbitten skin underneath, the tips of his fingers already turning a blackish blue. Cupping his hand he drank a few more mouth fulls of spring water, not caring whether the water was boiled. These mountain streams were known to contain some of the freshest glacier waters one could drink. It was always a risk to drink from these without filtering first, but Oliver was quite thirsty and trusted this small underwater brook.
With a grunt he pushed himself up onto his feet, wincing in pain as his frozen feet were now fully thawed and he could feel the cracked and blistered skin underneath his boots. He would need help walking, it would hurt too much to do so without some kind of crutch.
Ten meters away lay the broken limb of one of the nearby star-leaved trees, it seemed thick enough to hold his weight. With some frustration and some sucked in breaths, Oliver made his way over to the broken down branch.
He bent down to pick it up, found it to be quite light for its size and was about to start snapping off the extra twigs that grew on it. However, he stopped as floating words appeared above his hand holding the stick.
[Star Gazer Branch acquired.]
Blinking twice, he tried to focus on the words and see if they were indeed real. He leaned his head towards the white text that floated in front of his eyes, the letters floating above the branch for a few more seconds until they faded into grey and then into nothing. Oliver thought he was hallucinating, text does not pop up out of the blue in the real world, perhaps he was still dreaming.
Letting go of the branch with a soft thud as it hit the ground, he picked up the leaf of the nearest fern he could reach.
[Palm Fern Leaf acquired.]
The leaf was held limply in his hand as white text floated above it. Oliver then proceeded to pick up multiple different rocks and branches, the floating letters indicating the species and part he had picked up when it was a plant. When a rock was picked up, the type of mineral it was mostly comprised of was indicated above it.
After a brief period of excitement, Oliver finally went back to the Star Gazer Branch and picked it up once again. This time, the letters did not appear above the item. He came to the conclusion the text will only appear above the item if it was the first time it was picked up. He tried to remember if he had ever heard of a Star Gazer Tree before, his mind drawing a blank as he did so. He focused his eyes of the branch and tried to inspect it.
[Star Gazer Branch.]
The words reappeared as he focused his attention on the branch. Inspecting objects seemed to bring back the magical writing into his field of view. Oliver thought to himself this was a nifty little trick that he had fallen upon, but it did not make much sense in the real world. Wasn't this closer to how video games worked?
[Conditions sufficiently fulfilled. Scavenger perk available]
[Would you like to learn Scavenger perk? Yes or No?]
New text floated in the middle of his vision, this one seemingly inside his mind. It did not float above any object but simply stayed locked in his eyesight. He shook his head from side to side and tried to close his eyes but the white text remained present.
Oliver thought to himself it might be waiting for him to answer, only then would it disappear. However, what kind of perk was something called "Scavenger"? Scavengers were creatures who roam around until they find an opportunity to feed, animals such as vultures and raccoons. He didn't want to be an opportunistic feeder, he had a much higher opinion of himself.
He looked at his frostbitten fingertips. He was lucky he did not have a mirror as he was truly a sorry sight for the eyes. He might have to reevaluate his opinion as he was not in the middle of a grocery store with abundant food. His reality was that of a stranded pilot in the middle of a frozen wasteland, being a scavenger would most likely help him survive instead of dying with his pride.
With a hoarse voice he said out loud, "Yes."
The letters remained in his field of view, nothing had changed. He tried to say it louder, more affirmative, still nothing. He then tried to poke at the yes with his finger, maybe it was more of a touch display. He found nothing to poke at as the letters didn't truly exist in the material world. Oliver sat down and stared at the letters, all he wanted to do was say yes to the damn thing.
Closing his eyes, he focused his thoughts on the question that levitated in his brain. He inwardly thought the word "Yes".
[Scavenger perk acquired. New skills have been added.]
"What?" Oliver audibly gasped as he opened his eyes and new text formed in his mind. He barely had a second to think about it as a rush of information was shoved into his brain. Pictures, memories, strategies, knowledge and books of information came pouring into his mind about so many things it was almost a blur.
[Scavenging level 1 skill acquired.]
[Makeshift Crafting level 1 skill acquired.]
[Survival level 1 skill acquired.]
[Hunger/Thirst Reduction level 1 skill acquired.]
[Hunting level 1 skill acquired.]
After 5 minutes of his head spinning from all the new information in his head, he saw the list of new "skills" the magical letters had granted him. He thought about the topics mentioned, firstly thinking about survival, and could easily bring up survival techniques and tricks that he hadn't known before. It seems that learning skills in this biome would directly translate the necessary information directly into his brain, which was incredibly useful if not bizarre.
He thought of the scavenging skill as he was unsure what it was directly referencing, anyone with a pair of hands could pick up bits and bobs if they wanted to, he didn't need a skill for it. He was therefore impressed when tips on how to collect parts of plants into specific ingredients and how to find rare and often overlooked items when going through junk popped into his head. This scavenging skill seemed to do exactly what it was named after, it made him better at being a scavenger.
The rest of the skills seemed rather straight forward so he didn't inspect them too much. He frowned sightly at hunting as he had not seen any animals since he had arrived in this underground forest. However, he was in no condition to hunt and had no weapons to do so. He put the thought to the back of his mind.
He sat near the creek with the Star Gazer Branch, folding his feet under him and filling up his extendable water bottle from his backpack. The filter on it would get rid of any solid waste that was in the water, and to make sure he wouldn't get sick he put a chlorine tablet to purify the biotic compounds that might be present. He realized after he had done this that he was being much more careful and less rash than he was when he was simply gulping down water. Even if this was a glacier stream, it could still contain harmful bacteria which might kill him without proper treatment. His survival skill seemed to be kicking in as he was performing this action, which interested him greatly.
He then took out the Swiss multi-tool and was eyeing the branch to turn it into a makeshift crutch. As he stared down the shaft of the branch, he could mentally visualize what parts he had to cut off, which branches to trim, how to carve the top so that it would be somewhat comfortable to have under his arm. His crafting skill guided his actions, making the knife of the multi-tool swiftly cut through the wood in long and graceful strides. After what he could only assume to have been an hour in a trance like state, he looked at the crutch that rested in his hands.
[Wooden Crutch successfully crafted.]
[Material: Star Gazer Wood.]
[Quality: sub-par.]
[Creator: Oliver Plante.]
The floating text popped up above the finished crutch. It gave little information that Oliver didn't already know, but it was nice to see it neatly recapped in the bold white letters. Perhaps he will make a better crutch later on when he had more time or if this one broke, but for now it would do.
On his unsteady feet, he got up off the ground covered in broken off twigs and wood shavings. Dusting off his pants and making the remainder of the wood chips fall to the ground. It made it seem as if someone with a chainsaw had recently cut a tree down due to all the unnaturally shaved wood. He placed the crutch under his arm and placed some weight on it.
The crutch held as he stumbled his way through the woods following the stream. After about 50 metres he came to a clearing which housed a perfectly clear pond. The ground seemed to be made up of many different sizes of rocks and the water seemed extremely cold. Little fish could be seen swimming in the deeper part in the middle of the pond, their black shadow-like backs contrasting with the perfectly clear rocky bottom.
New plants grew in this area, reeds and cattails could be seen with their stalks sucking in water and filtering it. Horsetails and floating plants lined the side of the pond, giving it a very rustic and beautiful look. The grass grew taller here, the stalks thicker and wider, they would most likely make good baskets if Oliver took the time to weave them. The entirety of the clearing reminded Oliver of an old oil painting one would see in a cottage, it was quite picturesque.
This area would probably be a good place to set up camp but Oliver wanted to see how far he could get in the cave before he hit a wall. He walked his way through the clearing into the nearby forest and kept following the brook that fed into the lake on the other side.
The trees grew thick as he approached what seemed to be a barrier made of a greyish rock, the shining ceiling sloping down gradually. This closer proximity to the light most likely boosted the growth of the plants underneath, allowing a much denser forest on the edges of the cave. Pushing through, Oliver found himself grabbing onto a rock face of the greyish rock. It seemed quite solid and no prompt appeared as he stared at it. Seems there was nothing special about this rock.
He thought for a minute and traced his steps. He started following the brook until he found its source, maybe there would be a cave due to the years of water intrusion. The little stream curved and twisted its way along the ground until it finally came to an opening in the rock face.
Oliver tried to peer in yet could not see much past a few meters as the darkness seemed unnaturally dark. He decided to try and walk in a few feet until floating red letters appeared in front of his eyes.
[Warning, this area contains hostile creatures. The host may be severely injured or killed if unprepared.]