Havok wanted to set up a spot to practice his butchering skills and this cougar's corpse just sped up the process. He ran back outside to find the necessary materials. Several minutes later he returned with his arms full of branches, twigs and leaves. It took him an hour to finish setting up the area he planned on butchering to his liking. It had a homemade drainage pipe made out of leaves tied together with twigs that lead outside of his cave to avoid drawing mana beasts to him. There were also a few branches above that were several large hooks for hanging mana beasts to drain their blood.
He wanted to get his cave set up more like a home. He knew that he would be spending a decent amount of time here and now he had the freedom to do or build whatever he wanted. He wanted to set up an area that he could use to practice butchering beasts, a bathtub, and build a bed.
He built the butchery first. It was a large tree trunk that functioned as a sort of counter and he carved a hole into it, so that he could collect the blood in buckets he would place underneath it and dispose of the blood outside. Having his home filled with the smell of blood would certainly attract beasts.
He built the tub next, and it was massive. It was a tree trunk he hollowed out and it was big enough to fit three people his size with room to spare. There was a slab of stone underneath so that he could start a fire below to heat up the water without the wood catching fire.
Before he started on the bed, he made several buckets with twig handles. He tested the handles out to make sure that they wouldn't snap. He found a long thick branch and placed all of the bucket handles on it and carried it on his shoulders to the closest place that had water.
There was a river that ran all through the forest from the northwest down through the inner region all the way to the southeast right around where he lived. He passed over a thinner part of the river when he was running away from the black bear. The thickest part of the river was located in the inner region of the forest and the river water had the extra benefit of having some of that glowing water from the black bears pond in it.
He got to the part of the river by his cave and filled all of the buckets. He got them all back on the rod and started to carry them back to his cave. It took a while, although Havok was strong for someone his age it was still a bunch of weight for a 10-year-old to carry. He could feel his bones and muscles straining all the way back to the cave, lucky for him it wasn't too far away.
"Damn, that's heavy. Hah… Hah… Hah… Hah…I need to take a few minutes to catch my breath." Havok sat down the rod and panted heavily with his hands on his knees.
After he caught his breath, he made quick work of making a bed. It was made from wood planks and several large leaves. It was more comfortable than the bed he had at the complex.
The sun was setting, so he decided to stay inside and train his techniques. 'Darkness Dash' did make him faster, but it also used mana at a more rapid rate than his other techniques. He wanted to find a way to minimize the amount of mana it used and improve his control. He started off smashing into walls, when he was outdoors it wasn't a problem for him to not have precise control. However, he was in a confined space now and stopping in an instance was a struggle. The more he practiced the better he got.
He spent the first half of the night training 'Darkness Dash' and the other half training 'Hidden Presence'. It used too much mana for his liking while he was moving. He stopped after a few hours and got some sleep.
….
Today's agenda was to make weapons and test them. He was going to figure out what type of weapon he preferred to fight with. It took several hours for him to get all of the wood he would need to craft his weapons. He also looked around his cave and outside to find pieces of the rock wall that had broken off. He wanted to use them for the tip of his spear and the axe would have a wooden handle and a stone head.
He got the number of rocks he thought were necessary then began to whittle them down and sharpen them to his liking. A few of those sharp rocks were used to shape the wood for the knives, axes and spears. He chose weapons that were not difficult to make and the most practical. He thought about a bow and arrow, but he then remembered that he would need to constantly make arrows and that seemed like a hassle. He was not aiming for anything fancy because he didn't have any of the necessary equipment or experience, just made the most primitive weapons he remembered reading about in the library. Weapons that the cavemen made because that is what he was right now, and it could create them with the least amount of work. Half the day passed by the time he was finally finished.
He made three different sized axes, a one-handed short axe, a longer two-handed axe and a medium length axe.
He made two long weapons, one that was modeled after a javelin, it was lighter and shorter than the spear he made, and it was better for throwing. The spear was stone tipped and taller than he was.
Throwing knives were the weapon he was most excited about as they were easy to make and use. They would be the easiest weapon to carry, and he would be able to carry several of them at the same time. He ended up making about a dozen of them out of wood, their size ranged from ten to thirteen inches with a hole in the grip just big enough for his finger to fit it. They were all straight and they got wider towards the middle of the knife and then skinny again at the end.
He decided to make them with no handle that way they would not get stopped when they stabbed through a beast. He knew that the stone was weaker than the trees outside. He figured it had something to do with the trees being alive and being able to absorb more and more mana as they grow. While the wood was tougher and more durable that didn't mean that the stone was brittle too brittle to be used. He made two stone throwing knives because he could always inject mana into them to make them sturdier.
He picked them up one at a time and tested them out, the javelin was first. It felt nice in his hand. He swung it around for a few minutes practicing how he would use it in a fight, then quickly without too much effort threw it into the wall where it lodged itself making a decent amount of damage. "Nice, that is the one to beat. Let's try the spear next."
Havok began to swing the spear around and it felt awkward. It was too big for his current size and took much more effort than the javelin to use and throw. He threw it into the wall as he did with the javelin. "That is definitely not for me. My movements are sloppy and awkward. Although I could probably train with it and get better, I would rather choose what comes naturally. Now, on to the axes. Why the hell did I even make a two-handed axe? I guess I just got caught up in the moment while I was making the others and didn't notice. It doesn't even fit my fighting style, I want something I can throw and be able to use in close quarters. Which requires quick strikes and swinging a weapon with both hands is not an option. Fighting with darkness will be my primary form of attack and whatever weapon I choose now will just be a complementary weapon. There is no need to over complicate finding a suitable weapon." Havok picked up the smaller throwing axe, although it felt good in his hand it was too light. He wanted his weapon to be in the sweet spot of being heavy enough to not be fragile and deal damage while still being able to be thrown without him having to struggle.
He picked up the regular size axe and it felt much better than the small one, it was about even with the javelin when it came to his favorites so far. He threw it into the wall next to the javelin and it did just a bit more damage. Havok nodded with satisfaction and then moved onto the throwing knives. He was planning on using these regardless of the results from the axe and javelin. He wanted to create another technique based on his 'Licks front he Devil' technique, instead of just using mana in this attack he would incorporate throwing knives.
Creating this new technique, focusing on decreasing the amount of mana that he uses when he activates 'Darkness Dash', improving his mana control, hunting mana beasts using his axe and javelin was all that he planned to do for the next few months. "I have my plan for the upcoming months, so now it is time to butcher this cougar. I am finally getting to eat mana beast meat again! Fuck yeah, hunting will now become part of my regular schedule. I won't have to miss out eating meat ever again!" Havok said with a smile as he was filled with joy.
Havok used a wooden knife that had been hardened with mana to skin it, then the axe to chop up the body. He used the knife to get rid of all the parts he didn't want to eat, he washed the blood off and got prepared to cook it. He took some of the pieces and placed them on sticks and had them over the fire pit and roasted them until they were smelling incredible. Havok took the stick off of the fire and put the meat onto a wood plate, having learned his lesson from the last time when he grabbed the elk meat with his bare hands.
He let the meat cool for a few minutes to avoid scalding his mouth. He was still not used to using cutlery, so it took him a few extra seconds to cut up the cougar meat into bite size pieces. He finished cutting it up and took a bite and it had a different taste than the elk, but that does not mean that it was not just as good. "Damn, it's so juicy and tender. It's practically falling apart in my mouth." Havok spoke with his voice slightly muffled as his mouth was full of food. He ate about half of the cougar before he was unable to eat any more. His mana core stopped absorbing the mana from the meat after it was refilled from earlier. It seemed like his body was about to burst because the mana his core did not absorb nourished his body making it tougher, but he hit the limit of how much mana his body was able to handle. Havok knew that it was a waste to eat anymore and it was better to save it for later.
He sat down and waited for his body to adjust to the abundance of mana. After about an hour the effect wore off and he was ready to go to sleep. "Man, time went by fast, it's already nighttime. I can start hunting beasts tomorrow. Hahhhhn." Havok yawned as he made his way towards his bed.
While Havok slept the excess mana from earlier seemed to be affecting his body now, it was almost unnoticeable that he grew ever so slightly.