Chapter 32 - Restoring Caisleán (Part Three).

Søren followed Neeka at a steady jog, having finally sorted his pack and rifle out as well as the simple spear Neeka had acquired for him for training. He exited the eastern entrance of the settlement, where the remaining members of Neeka's tribe had been living. The gate was a simple wattle fence panel connected by twisted withies to a stout post embedded into the ground. The settlement was abutted against a thick copse of hazel and willow trees to the east. He noted that the base of the trees showed signs of being coppiced for several generations.

Fresh shoots were growing out of the stools of a coppiced tree in one section along the path. Strings of vibrant blue flowers threaded their way through the spring grasses starting to push out of the dead winter thatch. Bluestar Clover, an invasive ground cover plant known for its flowers mid-spring and little else. The roots could be used as part of a medicinal salve for bruising and tenderness, if the roots weren't so difficult to harvest. Søren shook his head and cleared his mind with a deep breath he held for a few seconds. The brief synopsis on the properties of the plant was part of the memory package and he had had trouble keeping random facts from popping to the forefront of his thoughts.

The path leading out of Caisleán wound its way down into a valley. Spread out before him, he could look over the tree filled valley towards older, thicker woodlands and further beyond them, giving way to rolling hills and grasslands. He brought up his map and was pleased to see it automatically updating as he traveled. He minimized the map into a mini-map in the corner of his view and brought his attention back to the path in front of him. Neeka was just ahead next to a small clearing, resting on her tail and the butt of her spear resting on the ground, both her hands wrapped around the haft. Søren finished jogging over to her and was distracted by a notification flashing on his interface.

Congratulations Traveler! You have learned the passive skill [Athletics]. Each rank of this skill provides a very slight bonus to feats of athleticism.

He waved the notification away and smiled at Neeka, keeping his teeth hidden behind his lips.

"Just got a new skill... for jogging over here," he said to her, trying to catch his breath. "Training is... already paying off."

Neeka crossed her eyes at him and shook her head at Søren. "Exercise is least of training you need. Tell me about your skills." As she spoke, Neeka started moving the spear in simple thrusts forward, her hands curled around the haft.

"My skills?" Søren said, setting the spear in his hands in a similar manner to Neeka's, and trying to copy her movements. In his interface, he mentally consumed a use of an uncommon experience booster. "As I said a moment ago, I got a notification for a new skill, Athletics. Initial rank. All my other skills, such as Analyze, Logos, and Shaping, are at Copper V except for Path of the Shaper. I couldn't use the skill boosters to raise that one. It's a legendary path."

Neeka hissed. "Logos, I know. What be shaping?"

"It is like your path, the Path of the Speaker, but less structured. If the description of the path is to be believed, I will someday be able to make my own Words, like Light," he said, pushing his thoughts towards the Word and then releasing it into the tip of his spear. The simple blade on the end began to glow brightly, illuminating the underside of the trees on either side of the path.

"Stop that! Essence, what you call TEK, must not be wasted," Neeka hissed at Søren sharply and then her features relaxed a bit, seeming uncertain almost. "Before being taken by the Gods into the night sky and tortured by the Tutorial, I believed essence was earned only with blood. Strife, toil. A gift of the slain to be treasured and used with care and respect. Now all this," she said gesturing at the air in front of her. "This interface make me wonder. What have we lost? What was taken from us?"

Neeka took a deep breath and breathed out forcefully to center herself.

"Think of what can be," Søren said to his companion. "The interface is a valuable tool for our survival and maybe so much more." His thoughts returned to the system and error logs that revealed Neeka's conversion from a non-traveler avatar to a traveler avatar. Maybe it can be repeated, he thought. Maybe all of them can become travelers and we can escape this awful world. There has to be a way to reactivate the gates. He sighed and centered himself the same way Neeka had.

Neeka nodded, but said nothing. She then resumed moving through various spear forms. Søren continued to mimic her movements, the patterns of the spear thrusts, blocks, and parries starting to feel natural. He also felt his form being subtly corrected by the skill system of the interface and the experience was disconcerting if he thought too much about it. Over the next few hours, he had learned to relax and follow the subtle guides to help build up his own muscle memory.

Congratulations Traveler! You have discovered the [Art of the Spear]. Would you like to spend a skill point to learn this specialization? Y/N

The notification caused Søren to stumble and lose the state of mind he'd lost himself in, following Neeka's forms with the spear and her footwork as they crossed back and forth across the clearing. The grass and ground cover had been trampled flat by their training.

"Søren ok?" Neeka asked. She sat back, using her tail to proper herself up and set the butt of the spear on the ground. Both her eyes were on Søren.

"Yeah," he said. "I just got a notification that says I can learn the Art of the Spear skill specialization."

Neeka nodded. "Good. You have taken first step towards Path of the Skirmisher. Though I imagine you have plans greater than a simple spear wielder."

"I have two paths right now. Artificer and Shaper. Artificer will let me make weapons like my pistol and this rifle someday," Søren explained. "I know I need to learn how to defend myself though. I cannot rely on you and others to protect me day in, day out. Learning the spear will help. Shaping could be powerful too, I think, but more difficult to train. It's not well explained how to use the skill unfortunately."

"I have found many parts of this, interface, to be vague, confusing. A jumbled mess." Neeka motioned for Søren to follow her as she led him out of the clearing and further down the path, away from Caisleán. "Useful though. Torza said to me last night, food stores were low. The interface gave me a mission to hunt and field dress ten deer. Gives a reward of 500 TEK and one of those green engrams."

"Perhaps we should be asking more of your people what they need and get more missions," Søren suggested. "Could you try sharing the mission with me? Back on my world, we had games with interfaces like this and you could share quests or missions for extra rewards. Try opening the mission and think of sharing it with me, like when you think of using a Word."

Neeka nodded and a few seconds later, a notification popped up into Søren's interface.

Neeka would like to share the [Hunt Ten Deer] mission with you. Accept / Decline

He accepted the mission and checked his mission log.

Hunt Ten Deer [weekly, repeatable]

Torza of the Water Finders has said their stores of food are running low after the lean harvest last autumn. They also need the hide from the deer to repair and replace their equipment and clothing. She has asked that you head east into Suncatcher Vale, hunt ten deer, field dress them, and bring them back to Caisleán.

0 / 10 deer slain

0 / 10 deer field dressed

Rewards

• 500 TEK

• 100 Water Finders reputation

• 1 BP (build point)

• [Uncommon] engram

"Interesting. It includes a reputation and build point reward for me," Søren explained. "Likely a way for me to build up my reputation and grow the settlement."

"Tell me about the build points," Neeka asked. She turned off the main path and disappeared into the foliage. Søren followed and found himself on a small game trail winding its way through the woods. "Why are these build points useful? Why do we need them when we could just build? As we have for generations."

"I'm not entirely sure. I think the points are a requirement to tie into the systems that govern this world. The network that makes this interface possible," Søren explained. "They may also allow us to expand faster and further than would normally be possible."

"What do you mean by a network?"

Søren stopped for a moment and scrunched up his face a little in thought. "Have you ever watched a spider spin a web? Noticed how it knows when it has captured a fly?"

Neeka hissed and nodded. "Yes, the web shakes."

"It's kind of like that. The shaking, the vibration sends information from the fly to the spider. The network can move information around like that nearly instantly to any other point on the network. The details would be gibberish to you, and honestly what little I know is on the edge of gibberish to me, but all that information can be used to do many wonderful things. It can also be used with ill intent however."

"What can we do now, with build points?" Neeka asked, her voice pitched lower, softer. She crouched near a track along the game trail and held her hand over a fresh deposit of spoor. Søren watched her study the tracks and sniff the small pile of brown, bullet-shaped feces. It had a wet, glistening look to it on the surface catching the light.

"I sorted a few basic options into Growth, Defense, and Production categories. I figure reinforcing the walls and adding platforms near the gates for sentries to keep watch is a quick improvement that will make it safer for those inside. For growth, there's an agricultural building for food storage. The shape and design of it naturally cools the interior, preserving food longer. It also helps prevent pests from gaining access and spoiling the food with waste. I have a skill that allows me to sense, within a hundred meters, the natural form of the blue crystal you and the other Fuerven use for weapons and tools. There's an aetherforge that will process the raw, crystallized aether into a form that can be shaped and worked like metal. It works with other ores as well, like copper, gold, et cetera.

"The aether could then be forged into stronger tools and better weapons and then we could..."

Neeka listened with half an ear to Søren prattle on and on about different options for growing the settlement, but much of it was difficult for her to process as he often used words that meant little to her. She got a sense of the words, the idea behind them, and was able to discern the intent. Enough to understand that her companion wanted to build a wall around the village, protect it with additional sentries on raised platforms, raise a building for storing food, and a forge to process the raw blue crystal. Aether. Strange word for it. That forge would definitely be useful. Grandfather said there was a time in his youth, when the crystalsmiths had forged amazing creations using the crystal. Our weapons are poor imitations of what we once had before the Exodus. Strong, but little better than knapped flint and stone.

A rustle in the undergrowth nearby, hidden in the shadows beneath the forest canopy caught her attention. One eye swept towards the sound and she spotted a flicker of a white tail. Neeka spun on her left foot and hurled the spear in her hands into the darkness. There was a snort of alarm from the deer. It was cut off as the spear struck its side.

*ding* 1 / 10 deer slain

"Come Søren. We have work to do," Neeka said, already moving towards the deer. Her spear had struck the heart. A lucky hit. Neeka drew a dagger from her belt as she got close to the animal. The sides of the deer's chest were still heaving when they arrived, but soon stilled. She spread the legs of the deer and thrust the dagger into the flesh around its anus, cutting several inches deep in a circle around it. Søren walked up at that moment and immediately turned away, retching and losing his breakfast. Søren wiped his mouth off and then rinsed it out with a slug of water from Neeka's waterskin.

"Sorry. Sorry... I... I know the process, but it's one thing to understand academically, yet another to see it in person."

Neeka said nothing and stuck the knife back into the cuts she had made, pushing it deeper and severing the membranes holding the last few inches of the colon in place. The membranes resisted her efforts at first, but soon parted against the sharp edge of her blade.

"Fuck," Søren managed to get out before he stepped away and his stomach was heaving again. Neeka hissed quietly, laughing, as she continued to field dress the deer, sliding the knife just under the skin, sharp edge facing up and away from her. After he recovered from his second bout of gastrointestinal distress, he stood off to the side and watched Neeka out of the corner of his eye. She worked her blade into the diaphragm below its lungs and then deep into the neck after cutting through the sternum. Neeka finished her cuts inside the neck and then pulled the entrails free with a strong and steady pull on its windpipe. The sound of the gut pile landing on the ground with a smack and a squish mingled with the soft chime of a mission log being updated.

*ding* 1 / 10 deer field dressed

"Ugh. Why didn't they include an option to auto-loot?" Søren complained, his skin ashen and his mouth turned down in disgust.

Neeka just chuffed quietly and hissed in amusement.