I awoke in the cold, damp cave, feeling a bit drowsy. As I looked around, I noticed my leg had turned purple. I tried to wiggle my toes and could barely manage it. Carefully, I removed the tourniquet. "How long have I been out?" I whispered to myself.
My leg felt fuzzy for about a minute or two, sending sharp, electric shocks through it whenever I moved or bumped it against something. After an additional five minutes, the feeling in my leg started to return to normal, though it still hurt a bit. Now, my next problem was finding food.
I slowly crawled to the entrance of the cave, still crouching. Pushing the snow away with my hands, I stepped outside and saw that the snow had finally stopped falling. The sun peeked through the clouds occasionally. Water was easy enough to find—I could take a handful of snow and place it on a rock, lighting a fire underneath to melt it. Finding food, however, would be more challenging.
I walked up to a pine tree and used my pocket knife to cut off some branches with plenty of pine needles. I remembered hearing somewhere that pine needles contain a lot of vitamin C, even if they taste terrible. As I walked around collecting pine needles and firewood, I stumbled upon a deer carcass. Most of the meat had been taken, and the cold had preserved the rest, preventing it from rotting. I didn't want to risk getting sick, but the leather might be useful.
I began to carefully pick away at the deer's pelt, salvaging what was left. I managed to gather a few long strands of deer hide. If I could find a strong enough stick and a sharp enough rock, I could wrap the leather around them to create a very primitive axe.
With my supplies in hand, I headed back to the cave. Inside, I sorted through the materials. I found a sturdy stick and a sharp rock, and I started fashioning my axe. Using the strands of deer hide, I tightly bound the rock to the stick. It was a crude tool, but it would have to do.
After I finished making the axe, I noticed another storm approaching. Hastily, I gathered some firewood, using the crude axe to chop thicker branches from trees. With my pocket knife, I cut off some birch bark to get the fire going quicker. I knew I couldn't light the fire inside the cave, but I could start it just outside the entrance.
Using a bunch of flexible twigs and some large pieces of bark, I managed to fashion a small door for the cave. To secure the door in place, I packed snow tightly around the base and the top of the entrance. The makeshift door would help block the wind and keep the warmth inside, providing a bit of extra protection from the elements.
After securing the cave entrance, I decided to chop down a small tree. It took about an hour and a half, but I finally managed to cut it down. I dragged it back to my main base and began debranching it. Using one of the larger branches, I cut it into segments and, with my pocket knife, carved the wood into makeshift cups. After making two or three, I started lighting the fire.
I began with a few dry twigs, then moved on to branches, and finally added big chunks of wood. I dragged some rocks from inside the cave and arranged them around the fire, placing one large, thin rock on top to allow air to reach the flames.
Filling up the wooden cups with snow, I placed them around the fire, hoping that in maybe 30 minutes to an hour, I would have lukewarm water. The warmth from the fire provided some much-needed comfort as I watched the snow slowly melt, my mind racing with thoughts of survival and what might come next.
I drank one of the cups of water once the snow had finished melting. There were some small bits of wood floating in it that I had to spit out, but the water was refreshing enough. After this, I tried eating some of the pine needles, hoping they might fill me up just a little bit.
I then set up a few traps for rabbits or any other small animals that might be around. Using sticks, I built a small cage held up by twigs. If an animal were to touch the twigs, the cage would fall on top of it.
Most of the day was spent chopping up the branches from the tree and feeding them to the fire to keep it going. As nightfall approached, I relieved myself by a nearby tree, and then returned to the cave. I fed the fire a few more logs, moved the makeshift door back into place, and curled up to go to bed. The warmth from the fire and the relative safety of the cave offered some comfort as I drifted off to sleep.
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Day Three.
I woke up colder than when I fell asleep. The fire had gone out, and my makeshift door was still in place. A big pile of ashes lay beneath the stone slab I had put over the fire. Using my makeshift axe, I scraped the ashes out of the way and onto some fresh snow that had fallen during the night's storm.
Instead of using one of my few matches, I grabbed a medium-sized stick and a smaller one. I spun them together really fast with some birch bark where both sticks met. After about 5-10 minutes of spinning, a spark finally caught. I quickly threw more birch bark onto it, and boom fire.
After my stomach started to turn, I ran to a tree, squatted down behind it, and had the worst diarrhea I can remember. After that experience, I thought about what could be the reason—the only thing I ate was the pine needles. Note to self: don't eat pine needles. After 10 minutes of cleanup and burying my excrement, I started doing my rounds checking all of my traps. This time, I caught nothing.
I went back to the main camp, grabbed a small branch that was light, and brought it into the cave. I leaned it up against the back wall and, with a small rock, started to carve markings into the cave wall. The plan was to make a map on the wall of the cave. I marked where the home base was on the map.
I crawled out of the cave and looked for a sturdy stick and a sharp, pointy rock. The plan was to make a spear. After I found the materials, I spent 10-30 minutes making sure the spear was sturdy. While I was practicing swinging, jabbing, and twirling the spear, I felt more confident in my ability to defend myself and hunt for food, as I felt this way a magic circle opened in front of me.
The magic circle has an intricate design, spanning 10 feet in diameter, featuring a mesmerizing combination of snowflakes and spears. The outer ring is adorned with snowflake patterns, each flake glowing softly and constantly shifting, creating a dynamic, living border. Inside this, a ring of spearheads radiates inward, each pointing toward the center and representing a different stat category. The center of the circle houses a large, radiant snowflake.
Inscribed within the circle, the elegant script reads:
Proficiencies: Medical Equipment, Polearms, Basic Craftsmanship
Name: Ivan
Magic: None
Skills: None
Titles: None
Alias: None
Weapons: Crude Axe, Crude Spear, Rough Pocket Knife, Hands
Weapon Masteries: None
Status Effects: Wounded, Cold.
These words hover in front of the circle, shimmering softly, the circle's intricate design, and inscriptions. A glowing icon appears beside "Weapon Masteries: None," offering the option to allocate a point toward spear mastery. With a determined gesture, I raise my hand and poke the "Yes" icon on the magic circle. After this the magic circle diapers.
I continued to train, hoping the magic circle would reappear, but it did not. It was midday when I stopped training and started planning to head south tomorrow. I walked around the main camp, careful not to stray too far, searching for pine cones. I hoped they would be a more palatable alternative to pine needles.
I found around 13 pine cones and began melting snow in my wooden cups. Once the water finished boiling, I took a bite out of a pine cone and then a sip of water. The pine cone was unexpectedly bitter. As night fell, I added a bunch of small logs to the fire to keep warm before settling down to sleep.