"If only I can access my 'ohr'..."
After cautiously threading the unknown for the whole day, and sneakily avoiding some potential dangers from the visible surroundings, Yroa decided to settle somewhere on the feet of the hill connected to the Reversed Lake Mountain, right beside a flowing purple river.
As the orange hue of the sun set its afternoon glow on the horizon, magicless Yroa needed to set some source of heat if he wanted to comfortably go through the night.
"Even though I'm excited to get to know this 'ohr' thingy… fate always has something different in store for me…"
Unlike most sentient beings, a Dungeon Core used EXP points to perform what one could achieve through ohr. And even if Yroa was a Dungeon Core with a Living Vessel, it still appeared that only an entity that had reached the 'Formation' domain could easily tamper and manipulate this energy.
[Domain: Physical]
And Yroa was certainly not within the Formation Domain in the slightest.
Actually, he didn't even know what the Formation Domain was to begin with. The info dumps he received didn't include that bit.
"My EXP is also minus, I can't do all of the cool stuff before I repay everything," Yroa sniffled.
Thus, Yroa resorted to the classic way of lighting up a fire that was taught to him by a certain survivalist he met when he was foraging in the wild for some exotic nature loots.
"Welp, might as well engage myself."
First thing to do, Gather Materials!
Find a sturdy, straight stick for the drill or spindle, a slightly curved piece of wood for the bow, a flat piece of wood for the hearth, and some dry vines or cordage for the bowstring.
"This place is quite abundant when it comes to basic materials," Yroa grinned whilst hauling all sorts of woods and vines on her arms. "I did find some flowers that emit fire that intensify when I get closer, but I don't want to take any risk. Any kind of flora or fauna always puts their gimmick for self conservation! I'm ageless, but I'm not deathless!"
However, Yroa marked all of the places where he found those weird things in his head, readying himself to go back when he was ready. After all, this wasn't hell anymore.
Secondly, prepare the Fireboard!
Carve a small notch near the edge of the fireboard as an extra. This is where the hot wood dust will collect as you drill.
"Wait, is this step really necessary?"
Thirdly, prepare the Drill and Bow!
Carve one end of the perfect material for the drill into a sharp point. Tie one end of the cordage to the bow and loop it around the drill. The drill should be held in place by the cord, but free to spin.
"Heh, I did it in less than two minutes."
For the fourth phase, form the Bow Drill Set!
Place the drill on the fireboard, and hold it in place with your foot or with a rock. The fireboard should be positioned on the ground with some tinder underneath.
"All done and set!"
Then start drilling!
Place the socket, or another piece of wood or stone on top of the drill to apply downward pressure. Using the bow, rapidly move it back and forth, causing the drill to rotate. This action creates friction between the drill and the fireboard, generating heat.
"I don't even know if anyone is interested in this, to be honest."
Keep drilling until it smokes! This may take some time and effort. Maintain a steady pace and pressure to build up heat!
Once it smokes, continue drilling until you see a small ember forming in the notch of the fireboard. Carefully transfer this ember onto your tinder bundle, which should be made of dry, flammable material like dry grass, leaves, or shredded bark.
"Hehehe, this is surprisingly fun."
Blow on the ember to encourage it to ignite the tinder. Be patient and gentle to avoid extinguishing the ember.
Once the tinder ignites, gently transfer it to your fire pit or fire lay, adding small twigs and sticks to build up the flame.
"Oho! I wonder how the first humans who consistently make fire get their method."
As the fire grows, continue adding larger pieces of wood to keep it burning steadily.
Remember, creating fire using friction methods can be challenging and requires patience and practice. It's essential to use dry materials and to maintain a steady, consistent motion to generate enough heat to ignite the tinder!
"And it's done!" Still with a wide joyous smile, Yroa then immediately launched a single fistful of a haymaker punch towards the invisible entity on his right.
"Guuooh!?"
[+4(50%)=2 EXP gained]
The invisible entity spun on the air before landing headfirst on the ground. As the invisibility faded, it then started revealing itself to be some sort of a petite humanoid creature.
Wearing some sort of incubus-level revealing fantasy outfit, it was a femininely adorable boy with gray skin, sheep-like white curly hair, adorned by a pair of spiraling ram horns on both sides of his head. He appeared to be crying as he rubbed his bruised cheek on the ground.
Yroa was already sure that this was a dude, despite the girly appearance, this slutty magical creature was a reek of a man! How one may ask?
Because Yroa was also the same, albeit he was already on the level where it was nearly impossible to determine whether he was a youthful man or a woman until he let his magnum out.
"Tch," Yroa looked at the fallen person with a slight disgust. "To prompt the notification for the EXP acquisition before I have any chance of explaining what it actually is and how to gain it in my monologue…"
"'You're the one who hit me!" the ram boy cried. "And why are you the one who is angry here?? Who are you even talking to all this time??"
[+2(50%)=1 EXP gained]
Without verbalizing it, Yroa cast Basic Appraisal on this sheep boy.
[Name: Azel Flegor]
[Lvl: 40 Malkuth]
[Domain: Physical]
[STR: 0.6]
[DEX: 1.2]
[CON: 1.4]
[INT: 4.2]
[WIS: 7.1]
[CHA: 5.2]
"Oy, don't cast Basic Appraisal on me without my permission!" Azel complained, still crying from the pain.
"So you can see this translucent stats sheet?" Yroa raised on his eyebrow, curiously donning a smile.
"Of course not, dumbass! But anyone can definitely feel having their 'value' pried open through the spell given by the blessing of Value Comprehension!" Azel appeared to be greatly insulted in one way or another.
"Right," Yroa said while donning a terrifying smile as he cracked his fingers individually, preparing to send another haymaker since it was clear that he possessed greater stats than this twink in many fronts. "Who is creepily approaching me using some invisibility trick while harboring a lewd intention again?"
"Urgh, I admit it okay! I wanted to cast you into a dream…" Azel shyly said with a blush. His pain appeared to have subsided, and now all he could focus on was Yroa's face, which was enough to put him in a rather nerve-wrecking position. "Y-you are really gorgeous! It's the first time I found prey that's on your level…"
Not to mention, Yroa's shriller deep yet lascivious voice was arousing enough for those who aren't used to it.
"I'm a dude though," Yroa said casually with a smug.
"..." Azel's eyes were wide open. He blinked once, and then it took him four seconds before he could utter another speech. "You're lying."
"It's true."
Yroa then decided to reveal his hidden dragon.
[+8(50%)=4 EXP gained]
Azel was utterly shocked and flabbergasted, as if he had just received a psychic attack directly to his soul.
"His 'member' is bigger than me…" Azel murmured as he defeatedly lay down and hugged his knees, letting his tears fall sideways with her eyes still wide open from the shock.
While in this state, Yroa interrogated Azel on what he actually was. It turned out that Azel was a Dream Devourer, a demon that put their victim to an afflicted dream where they could perform and do anything to the victim before sucking out their life forces.
A Dream Devourer was also said to be related to those of Succubus and Incubus, making it much clearer that their lifeforce-sucking business was done in a rather convoluted manner.
And then slowly, while also doing it in a teasing manner, Yroa asked how both of them were able to communicate unless Yassimhre also used the common language used on Earth for some reason.
Since it was similar to how it works in Hell.
Yroa dismissed his conversation with the Worldsmith as one since it might as well be a case of divine power and influence going on.
"Hey~" Yroa cooed like he was doing an ASMR. "This big brother wanted to know the intricacy of how this cross-language phenomenon works, Azel~"
ASMR, an abbreviation for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. It's basically a term for a sensory phenomenon that occurs in response to low-volume audio stimuli, comprising a tingling sensation in the scalp, and sometimes including the neck or the back along the spine, along with a trancelike state of deep relaxation.
It was something that Azel was fighting right now.
"Hnng… I-it's something that has to do with the presence ohr…!" Azel nervously murmured, still trying his best to resist the tingly sensation that was overwhelming his whole body. "A-anyone can communicate to anyone, their intent, the detail of their accent into something that is comprehensible to the other side of the recipient- HIIIKH!?"
Yroa teasingly blew his air towards Azel's elven-like ear.
"Good boy~"
Apparently, two sides of the communicators needed to possess a great level of ohr presence for this phenomenon to work. As such, simple beasts or organisms with no mental faculty to understand or comprehend the concept of ohr won't be able to do this feat.
Azel was Lvl 40 Malkuth, which was 34 stages higher than Yroa. It was possible that Azel was born with an innate control for ohr since he was a demon and all.
As for Yroa, his most plausible hypothesis on how there was an ohr presence in him, was due to him being a Living Dungeon Core. Basically, it was already in his nature to possess a presence of ohr even though he could barely access and manipulate them.
Regardless, Yroa further interrogated the sheep boy about this region and every common sense that he needed to know.
Yroa also wanted to ask about the Lvl and Malkuth thing that appear on the result of a Basic Appraisal, but before the conversation reached that way, Yroa found out that Azel was indeed attempting to voraciously 'eat' him inside this aforementioned inflicted dream if Yroa didn't hit Azel when he was still in his invisible state.
Angered and disgusted, Yroa hurled another haymaker punch towards the same spot that he inflicted back then, knocking out Azel into a semi-conscious state.
[+3(50%)=1.5 EXP gained]
"Oh well," Yroa wiped his gloves from any debris with a smile. "Now that I have actually fulfilled one of my dreams of enacting a fire-making in the wild per instruction of my survivalist friend, I can start trying to make a real bonfire through my own version."
Yroa proceeded to craft a long makeshift grabber stick using the leftover material, before wrapping the majority of it with all sorts of moisture-soaking material. He then dipped it all on the purple river beside him.
Azel semi-consciously saw Yroa making an ecstatic run towards somewhere out of his view. A minute later, he went back with an intensified bursting heat of a flaming flower.
He then dunked the flaming flower onto the small campfire. A tall spiraling tower of flame emerged from the combination of the flaming flower and the small campfire, upgrading it to a large bonfire!
"Hehehe, an upgrade."
"Why didn't you just do that from the start??"
Azel got punched again on the same spot, upgrading his semi-conscious state into a fully unconscious state.
[+4(50%)=2 EXP gained]