Year 0001, The Imperium
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After a few days of scouting, I managed to gather some tools from the other houses; I also opened their root cellars too.
Viola, some food for me.
It was all preserved too!
And for a while I wouldn't be worrying about procuring food outside the village.
---
After a few days of walking around the entire village, August could no longer keep on closing his eyes or pretend that they were not there while walking over the corpses of his fellow villagers and his family.
And suffice it to say that after a while of looking at all the dead villagers, his conscience, well, mostly his stomach, couldn't take it anymore. (puke)
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I was planning on burying the bodies that had been scattered around the village floor or what was left of them.
But there's a lot of them, to say the least, and I am the only one here that remained to clean all of it up.
I only buried my family's corpse and burned the rest.
---
I started gathering the rotting corpses outside the village entrance.
I only managed to do so out of conscience, but with much puking and sobbing, of course.
My strength was still pretty weak, but I could slowly walk around now.
Although rather slow, it was a bit better than before; without much wincing from pain from my injuries, they seemed to have healed pretty nicely on their own.
I have finally gained some of my strength back.
---
I piled most of them on top of each other, but…
* Erghhh!!! (puke again)
I stepped on Uncle Thomas's rotten corpse (it was soft, littered with maggots, and had a putrid smell coming from it, and that would surely make you gag!) to get up on the top of the pile.
After I dragged the last one on to the pile, I think it was Aunt Mary, I think...?
As her face was now barely identifiable.
I took off some of the wood from the nearby houses and used it to burn the pile of bodies, and it took me a while to get the fire going.
Until the fire slowly consumed the oils from bodies, and it burst into flames, engulfing the entire pile.
I made a silent prayer for all of them.
Though I cut it short because of the putrid smell of burning rotting corpses.
Thankfully it hadn't rained for days now or it would've spilled their body parts all over the village.
And that would have increased my long list of problems.
As for my family, I dragged them on to the village graveyard and dug a deep pit for each of them.
And I encircled their grave with stones and made my prayers; rest their souls.
I went back home in a somber mood; at least I finally made them rest comfortably now.
---
After the pile burned to ashes, I returned outside to see what I could do next.
I looked at my [System Panel] and found my [Mission Panel].
My system is still very cold towards me.
[ S Y S T E M : MISSION SECURE THE ENTIRE MAYA VILLAGE FROM PREDATORY BEAST ]
[ REWARD:
° MINOR REWARD - SLIGHT INCREASE ON BODY CONSTITUTION AND MENTAL STATE, +1
° MAJOR REWARD - UNLOCK YOUR PERSONAL PANEL ]
[ TIME LIMIT : INDEFINITE ]
" Hmmm Personal Panel huh? what could that be? I wish it explained it to me more."
[ S Y S T E M : A PERSONAL PANEL IS YOUR OVERALL VIEW OF YOUR CURRENT SELF, IT HAS GAME LIKE FEATURES THAT WE HAVE ACQUIRED AND TWEAKED IT TO THIS SYSTEMS FUNCTIONS AFTER ASKING YOUR PREVIOUS SELF WHAT HE WOULD LIKE FOR THE NEW HIM TO HAVE AS A GIFT. ]
" OHHH YOUR BACK???!"
In surprise of the voice that echoed through his head.
Grinning like an idiot
[ . . . . ]
"Oh come on, don't be like that now."
[. . . I. . . NEVER LEFT.]
"..."
---
August looked at his [Mission Panel],
" So is this like a good thing? "
[ YES ]
Cold as ever huh?
"I guess I'll start doing this mission of yours that you gave me."
[ . . . . ]
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I started laying out my plan on the dirt; I drew the overall layout of the village and its current state of problems that I have to solve all by myself.
I planned to dismantle some of the houses for now and use them as kindling wood for fire.
I grabbed all the miscellaneous and useful items from one of the houses near me and used it as a storage.
I wish someone could help me, though this would have been a lot easier then.
* Sigh
"Because someone is ignoring me...."
[ . . . . ]
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In the chief's house, August found a rather simple-looking bow that the chief would always bring with him whenever the village patriarchs went hunting outside the village.
It wasn't the best, but that would do for now for self-protection, or he could also use it to hunt himself.
---
August also started hauling some twigs, dried wood, and such that he could use as firewood from outside the village.
But not too far from the gate so he could run back inside quickly if a beast would dare appear.
Although he had the bow he still couldn't pull it with his current strength, he would need to train with it for a while.
---
After a few days of doing his current routine—eating, sleeping, shitting, scouting, practicing with the bow, scouring for food, and repeating—he had gotten a bit more efficient in doing it.
August could now feel the cold embrace of the winter weather; it is almost upon him.
The planet is beginning its winter season soon and the first one where he alone would have to survive.
August barricaded their house for now with some pre-cut wood that his father planned to mend their house before but has never managed to.
Using the village's tools available to August, he made some minor improvements on the house, if you could even call it that, probably.
---
As it was now late for farming crops, he wished he could have planted some of the seeds he found while scouring the village houses.
Of course August was taught by his father to farm, since they were a farming village, obviously.
Although most of the produce that the village produces would be for the entire village alone.
Because they never bothered to trade with the outside world, except for a few people who sometimes stumbled upon their village.
Sigh
---
August stocked their root cellar as much as he could before the first of the winter snow would fall.
You name it; anything that was edible was preserved by him just like how his mother had taught him to do.
He also made some rationing with his current food pile so as not to exhaust it in the coming days, and he needed to survive this winter alone.
August made small game traps that his father had taught him to do, mostly for some wild rabbiet-like creatures who foraged the forest floor.
He made three traps and he would pass by them everyday to see if he made a catch.
Since there was an abudance of beasts in the forest, he made three catches a day.
He would skin them and preserve their meat for winter.
Naturally he wanted to go to the river to build some fish traps but he decided against it.
If he remembered it correctly the river was too far away from the village and he might get lost on the way there.
And since he had been there only once when his father brought him along, he really couldn't go there willy-nilly, else he would be the outside world's unfortunate victim.
As for now, August stayed near the village premises.
And a bit further from the forest floor, where he deemed safe from the predatory beasts.
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August repeats such activities until the first snow falls on top of his nose.