Nathan spends the next couple of days wandering around the cave system looking for another water source hopefully, one with fewer Lizards guarding it. After each encounter with a Lizard, he drains the blood the best he can then skins and butchers it getting some more skin to use later and some meat to take with him as food on the way. After butchering a few he gets a skill.

[Butchering Level:1 Skill at the art of cleaning a kill and sorting it into usable parts to eat or use later]

With the skill, Nathan felt it give him a sense of where he should cut to drain the blood of the lizard better, along with where and how to cut to get the best meat off the Lizard. Where weak points are and how to better skin it along with other little tips and tricks in butchering the Lizard would just come to him.

‘The skill is useful but rather disturbing it so many ways’ a cold chill going up his spine. ‘I mean the damn thing is directly inputting information into your head, how is that not scary! Who knows what else it can do? Can it take memories or alter them?’ The thought sends another shiver down his spine. ‘Does me no good to worry about it now though as I can’t really stop it from doing what it wants’ with this thought he puts it out of his mind for now.

__________

On the third day with his water bottle drained, the Lizards meat provided a little bit of liquid that helped hold him over, but with thirst overwhelming him, Nathan finally stumbles upon another light source.

Dismissing Candle Light he sneaks closer to the opening the light is coming from. Spending a second to let his eyes adjust he looks into the cavern. It looks just like the last one with transparent blue glowing stalagmites and stalactites sticking up from the cave floor or hanging down from the ceiling. He can see pools of water on the floor in different parts of the cavern.

‘This cavern is smaller than the last one but this one only has maybe a half dozen Lizards so that is an upside. Now how should I handle cleaning out the Lizards?’ he thinks while looking at the half dozen Lizards lounge around sleeping or grabbing a drink from some of the pools while others fight for some reason or another.

Spending some time he counts the exact amount of Lizards in the cavern spending extra time making sure he did not miss any, he does not want one sneaking up on him after he thought he had killed them all. ‘Do I after to kill them all? Could I just lure them off somewhere else?’ Thinking it over he decides he needs to kill them all. If he just lures them off they will most likely come back once what he lured them off with is captured by the Lizards or it runs out of mana.

‘I don’t want to go in guns a blazing, that will just get me killed with how little mana I have at the moment. Which means I need to find a way to get them alone one at a time. Could I float a Candle Light in front of one then lure it back? Last time the Lizards that saw it alerted the others, so that is a no go.’ thinking it over a bit more he comes up with an idea that might work, however, if it fails he is going to be in a lot of danger.

‘I need to get a weapon, other than my pocket knife, so if I run out of mana I have a way to fight.’ Thinking this over he decided on a plan of action but first, he needs to refill his water bottle.

Using the same trick he used last time he sends in a Candle Light and lures the Lizards down the only other path leading out of the cavern. Moving slowly he moves the spell farther and farther making sure he has the attention of all the Lizards he creeps to the closest pool of water to the entrance he came in. With his heart pounding, clammy hands shaking he fills the water bottle every second a tortures minute on his psyche. Once full he seals the cap back on and sneaks back to the entrance. Once out of sight he lets out a breath he did not realize he was holding, the whole ordeal a tense experience hoping a Lizard does not spot him and alert the others.

‘At least the Candle Light spell seems to be a good way to distract them as long as there is not something else to draw their attention, like say my fresh bloody body! That they seem to want to take a bite out of every time I run into one. What do they eat down here anyway? They always seem in such a rush to gobble me up. Are they starved? I hope my idea works out.’ thinking this he cancels the Candle Light spell that is distracting the Lizards and castes a new one. He starts walking down the tunnel moving on to the next stage of his plan, a weapon!

__________

Making sure not to lose track of the cavern with the water he goes about hunting a lizard. He has to stumble around for most of the day before one comes tumbling down the tunnel he is in. Sending the Candle Light spell out in front to spot the Lizard sooner he preps a Fireball. The rumbling gets louder and louder before the Lizards pops into the light and Nathan unleashes his first Fireball. As he preps another one the first fireball hits the Lizard in the snout burning and fusing the scales on it. Growling in pain the Lizard comes to a halt as it thrashes its head around in pain, the next Fireball Nathan throws at its front right leg, hoping to make it recoil or at least impair its movement.

The Fireball hits the Lizard and it does what Nathan hopes and it recoils, lifting up of its front legs it exposes its soft underbelly. Nathan prepared for just this fires off another Fireball, it flies through the air and impacts the underside of the Lizard scorching away the soft underbelly. With a final cry, the Lizard flops to the ground dead.

[Class Level Up]

Pleasantly surprised by the level up Nathan spends his points one into Wisdom and one into Intelligence just like last time.

[Name: Nathan Vellenger]

[Age: 21]

[Class: Fire Mage Lvl:3]

[Health:86]

[Stamina:13]

[Mana:77]

[Strength:11]

[Endurance:10]

[Vitality:12]

[Agility:9]

[Dexterity:13]

[Wisdom:14(+1)]

[Intelligence:16(+1)]

[Skills: Inspect, Fire Affinity, Mana Sense, Mana Channeling, Spell Creation, Concentration, Meditation, Mana Control, Butchering]

[Spells: Candle Light, Fireball, Flawed Heat Transfer]

[Titles: Otherworlder]

‘Not sure how many Lizards I have killed since last time? I know it is a lot. I wonder how many Lizards I need to kill for each Level Up and how it scales per Level up?’ Pondering this Nathan sets about draining and butchering the Lizard. He skins the Lizard then cleans off the skin the best he can and starts the process of drying it, while he waits he cuts off a few choices pieces of meat heats them up to eat while saving a few for later.

‘Time to get to the dirty job of making a weapon from this guy’ with a grimace he uses the guidance from the butcher skill to open up one of the legs of the Lizard to get to the bone. Cutting away the muscle that holds the bone in place Nathan then rips it out of the Lizards leg. The bone still has a lot of muscle on it that he sets about scraping and cutting off. Done with that he grabs a rock off the ground and beats at the small end of the bone breaking off while losing some of the bone in the process. Looking at the broken end of the bone it is rough but somewhat pointed. Nathan spends the next couple hours grinding down the bone to a point with the rocks lying around on the ground.

‘Not the best weapon but it will do’ he thinks to himself as he looks at the bone spike, not really a knife as it has no cutting edge it is only good for stabbing. ‘It is longer than my pocket knife so I can keep the Lizards at range while I stab them. Next up is the jaw bone!’ Tired but motivated about having his own space Nathan cuts around the Lizards jaw attempting to pry it out. ‘I really have to be careful about those teeth one wrong move and I have a nasty hole in my arm’ chuckling to himself he finally gets the bone out of the Lizard. He breaks off the teeth on one end and grinds it down until it is as smooth as he can get it he then goes about rapping it in some skin to get a better grip on it and not cut himself.

‘With both of these weapons, one for stabbing and one for cutting, I might just have a chance to beat one of the Lizards without using magic, well other than Candle Light that is.’ The jaw knife as he calls it is unwieldy with its curved shape making it strange to swing. Nathan does a few test swing on the Lizards body to get a hang of it and also does a few minutes practice with the bone spike. More comfortable with his the new weapons he goes about cutting the rest of the lizard up.

With the dried skin, he goes about making large skin sacks to carry the chopped up Lizard meat, getting a skill for his efforts.

[Tailoring Level:1 Skill in the art of making items of clothing or other objects from animals or plants.]

‘Not really helpful in keeping me alive in this place per se but it is always nice to have more skills. Wonder how many skills there are in total?’ he thinks happy to have to skill but with its usefulness limited at the moment.

Done with everything he sets out back to the Cavern with a smile to conquer it for himself. Wondering what the future holds, weal or woe?