Jer Patch
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Chapter 55: A New Start
🕑 Added 2025-04-16 14:00:08 +0000 UTC“This is a great location, between the water and the cliff. We need to check out the cavern first, though.” He smiled. “You did good, Sprout.”
I cringed at the nickname.
He chuckled as he moved closer to the water’s edge.
“Be careful. Something powerful is in the deep, but I don’t think it means us any harm,” I added.
“Where’s the other side?” He stared across the massive lake. “Is this an ocean? It doesn’t smell salty.”
“No clue. It's all water until it drops off my senses.” I moved closer to the carcass's chest, before kneeling. Hopefully, this wouldn’t take long. My side ached badly, and it still bled a bit. I needed to heal, and for that, I needed to eat.
I started cutting and tossed a few small scraps into my mouth as I worked. Each bite helped my energy return. Bit by bit I felt better, and started cutting up bite-sized pieces for my inventory. They stacked nicely, which helped. The dense muscle on the dead Spino’s chest made for a ton of meat, and eventually I switched back to cutting off massive chunks to process later.
Maybe I could ask Abby for help with that.
Eventually, I made it to the heart. The massive organ was the size of my head, and I cut it down into smaller pieces, tossing one into my mouth.
Oranges… it tasted like oranges, and not that fake orange flavor in candy, but the bright crisp flavor of the fresh fruit.
[You have devoured Aggressive Spinosaurus and gained the potential skill Rage. Rage provides a short burst of energy. You have ten skills already. Would you like to merge Rage with Adaptive Body II?]
I blinked at the skill, wondering what to do with it. While a short burst of energy sounded helpful, things like that always came at a cost. Suddenly becoming starving after using it wouldn’t be good at all, for instance. It felt like I’d finally gotten used to eating before every battle, and then still needing food after the fact. Messing with that made me uncertain.
Also, I had moments where I'd increased my energy output without the skill. It didn’t sound useful enough to warrant the currently unknown down side.
The orange flavor in my mouth faded, which was sad. We really needed to see if Benny could grow some of the fruit tree seeds he had stashed away. With the bloomstone, who knew how it’d help with producing fruit?
The notification mocked me, and I needed to do something about it. On my stat sheet, I stared at field dressing, wondering if now was the time to get rid of it. Then I could leave rage in its own slot.
But then I’d lose the ability to cut up nice neat pieces that fit in my mouth to eat before I got in a planned fight.
Insight could be merged into Augmented Senses, though it felt like Insight was such a lower level than Augmented senses, even though they didn’t have their own levels. First, I needed to rank up Insight, then I’d merge it in.
That still left me with this problem-child of the potential Rage skill.
My stealth skill could also get merged into Adaptive Body. It kinda made sense, but then again, leveling that part of the skill would be harder. Not that I’d made any leaps or jumps with it recently.
Staring at my skills made it clear I really needed to focus on growing some of them, and focus less on my level for a little while.
I felt someone watching me and found my father’s dark eyes studying my face.
“I’m a mess, aren’t I?” I asked, sheepishly.
“You’re fine,” he said, shaking his head. “Just thinking of how far we’ve come, is all.”
I glanced at the skill again, and then just decided to ask. “How many skills do you have?”
“All ten, but some of them don’t make the most sense for me. It’s hard to learn new skills, and the ones I have focus on combat for the most part. It's the random ones that I sometimes get the most use out of. Like, Insight. It tells me so much about a person, and if they’re lying to me.”
“Woah.” My head tilted to one side. “Your Insight does that?”
There wasn’t a chance I was going to merge that in right now, then. Not if I could swing it in different directions like that.
I tried to shove the notification to the side, but it wouldn’t go away. Probably because I already had ten skills.
“I received a potential skill from the heart. It's called Rage, and I don’t know what to do with it,” I added. “I already have ten skills and don’t want to merge any that I already have.”
He frowned, almost looking upset for a split second, then his thinking face came on before he let out a breath and putting on his teaching face.
“I don’t know if this is the correct way to think about it, but, do you want to be good at something called Rage? Skills represent things you are good at.” He shook his head lightly. “I focus on skills that let me protect those I care about, and survival.”
I paused, letting myself think about what he’d said before replying. That was a great way to think about it. What did I want for myself? And, did I want Rage to be one of the core ten things about me?
No, I didn’t. I wanted more knowledge, and ways to know more about everything.
I sent that to the notification, and it vanished before another popped up.
[You have gained an insight into Rage and Insight - II has upgraded. Insight - III: You can study different creatures, objects, or crystals, learning basic information, and have a chance to uncover what skills they have.]
How did it do that?
“Well, that's helpful,” I muttered to myself.
My father tilted his head at me.
“Nothing. It merged into my insight skill, giving me additional knowledge in a strange way.” My lips parted and my head snapped around to my father. “Why are you only focusing on protection and survival? What about thriving?”
“Back to work, sprout. That beast isn’t going to get cut up on its own…” He chuckled without answering my question. Instead, he headed up the slight incline to the larger clearing.
I rolled my eyes and glanced over how much more I needed to do with the carcass.
I stood from the kneeling position I’d been in for the past few minutes and just stared at how big this creature was. The other bigger dinosaur also needed to be cut up. Not to mention the smaller Spinos, which were still huge at half and a quarter this size. Scavengers had to be on the way already.
In the sky, small birds already circled above the clearing.
We wouldn’t get all of this cleaned up before problems started raining down on us.
Hawk trotted down the trail after speaking to my father.
“Need any help?” he asked while studying the massive creature. “Abby and Denver are working on the others, Hellion’s going to load up his inventory crystal.”
“I’d love some help, but there isn't a chance we can use all of this.”
“We can try.”
Hawk started cutting into its hind legs and I continued with its chest. The sun slowly warmed up the area, but the wind shifted, blowing in from across the lake, which helped with the growing smell. Yet, that only meant that the smell of these dead things would flow across the trees and forest to the north.
We needed to solve this problem faster than we were.
I stood up and headed to the clearing, giving Hawk a nod after loading up everything he’d cut so far into my crystal.
Abby had already started a fire and had meat smoking off to one side. Directly over it on spears of wood were various steaks, cooking and sizzling in the flames.
My stomach growled, and I rolled my eyes at myself.
“Alex, you need to eat, if I know you,” she said as I approached. She pulled a steak off one of the spears using metal tongs. “This is probably pretty rare, but I don’t think you’ll mind.”
She held it out to me, and I just grabbed it with my fingertips. I tossed it back and forth for a moment before literally biting it.
“I could have grabbed you a plate, you know…”
I shrugged, my mouth full. Once it cooled enough to touch, I held it causally in one hand.
“We’re not going to be able to process all of this meat quickly enough.”
“I know. Sang’s on the way, and she has many inventory crystals. Especially if we pile up things like the fencing.” Abby turned, looking at all the dead beasts. “The smaller ones will fit in with just a few cuts, but it's the big ones that are the problem.”
On cue, humming came from the north and I spotted the shuttle. It circled overhead before landing in a cleared area, piled high with fishbones. They crunched down from the weight.
As soon as the back opened, the others poured out, including Sang and Benny, pushing cargo crates on the sleds. Everyone else cleared the way for them as they practically sprinted.
Jas and Mary marched out of the back, turning in the direction they’d flown. They both caught sight of me as I scarfed down the cooked meat.
“We have a problem. Big things are moving in this direction. I’d guess they can smell the goodies.”
Doc joined us from inside the ship. “Big enough that we’re going to head back into the air. If we need to, John will try to run them off or thin the herd so to speak.”
Lenna and Dengu padded down the ramp, looking at all the activity. Her eyes landed on me with a smile. Dengu chirped in greeting.
I let out a sigh, quickly finishing the food in my hand.
“We can get the crystals out, and then start on some fencing.” My father suddenly stood next to me giving orders. “Hammy!”
“Yes, Sir!” Hammy appeared from the tree line, where he must have been patrolling.
“Incoming from the north. You and Alex are going to head them off, with John and Doc providing aerial surveillance and limited support, while we get the fence up.”
“I bet Hammy can help more on the fence,” I said, interrupting my father. “Yes, his level is high, but he trained for construction skills. Plus, he has the only exosuit still working. I can take care of the beasts. Lenna and Dengu can join me.”
His eyes darkened, but he nodded. “I’ll hold the line back here.”
I turned to the north and started hiking in that direction.
My dad continued to bark orders at people. “Randy, you get to work with Hammy. Didn’t you want to be an engineer?”
After several moments, I ran across Sang and Benny, along with Cass and Maggie, setting up a crystal line. They nodded at me, but all of them moved quickly and with purpose. The humming from the first large crystals started.
Lenna and Dengu caught up to me.
“They’re overreacting,” she whispered. “Maybe two large creatures that are pack bonded, but once they hit the territory edge, they will pause.”
“You know about that?”
“We got notifications when we crossed the boundary.” She shook her head. “My home is a claimed territory, but the leader doesn’t stay there. It's safer for them not to be in the area. That way, they can’t be challenged.”
“That’s good to know.” I reached out, feeling the boundary of the territory. It wasn’t far ahead, though it felt bigger than before. I opened the territory screen.
Territory - Unnamed
Claimed by Alex
Level 1
Citizens: 15
Benefits:
- Minor increase in recovery rate for citizens if they consume calories
Talk about a good change.
“What else do you know about territories?” I asked as we waited.
“Not much.” Lenna studied the trees surrounding us. “Our foods grow faster, and we have defensive bonuses, plus stronger attacks.”
Dengu stood beside me. “Family, stronger.”
“That’s true. Family bonds are stronger between bonded individuals.” Lenna climbed up the nearest tree.
Then I felt it.
Something touching the edge of the boundary of my territory. Like a cold finger pressed against the back of my neck. I didn’t like it. Not at all.
Comments
ivyiblack
Thank you for the chapter
