Chapter 8: The Freezing Wilds

I never expected this!

The furthest thing from my mind going into this crazy quest just came and kicked me on the ground. I looked at the snow-covered landscape before me. I have never been here. In fact, I wasn’t suppose to hit a snow area for quite a while. But, there was lower levelled snow areas too though.

Frustration bubbled in me and I hurriedly clicked on my Character’s Status again. I had to be sure it wasn’t just a bad dream...

Wil Stormchild

Race: Norskai

Level: 1

________ [Primary Class][Search for a main class tree in game.]

________ [Secondary Class][Explore and find your first sub class tree in the world]

Health: 40

Energy Bar: 50 [Tier 0 accessible]

Armor Class: 7

>Equipped Weapons and Runes:

Skinning Knife []

>Equipped Armor and Runes:

Stout Shirt {little to no shielding against the elements}

Stout Pants {ittle to no shielding against the elements}

Etched Silver Gauntlet -single- [Stone body II-Rune][Missing second gauntlet _ effectiveness halved.]

>Equiped Trinkets:

Shadow Veil Ring [Stealth +10%]

[...]

“Agh!!” I groaned.

I really was level 1 and my classes really were gone. It royally sucked. But then a thought popped up and slowly trepidation grew in me. If I’m not in a starter area... Then I didn’t have a primary class in a higher level zone!

No!

That would make things far worse... My hands shook as I tapped the map icon, the world map popped up and my fears became a reality. There was no way that I was even in a level 5-10 zone where even the hardiest of players are forced to find a primary class before being able to tackle the more difficult zones.

The 5-10 zones bordered the starting zones and I wasn’t anywhere near one the beginner areas. My gaze shot up and looked around for the fox.

The critter jumped around in the snow to get around. I rushed after it and the moment I was in range, I shouted,

“Identify!” My voice broke in the crisp cold air, but it did the trick.

Silver Fox

[Critter] Level ??

This critter is commonly found in the cold places around the world. Its thick silvery fur makes it ideal for the breezy temperatures.

[Extra Info] ??

[??]

[Non-Hostile-Unless Provoked]

Sweat started rolling down my face, and then froze. I yelped and scraped the ice droplets from my face. This was extremely bad!

I sat in a cold biome that I am not prepared to survive in, classless and now I learned every moving thing could probably kill me here.

This meant only one thing, I had zero time to actually think about how I should proceed. Looking up at the top of my field of view, I saw a little ball and three bars blinking into existence. The top one was dropping. My exposure.

I flicked on my Character Status and tapped the [...] at the bottom.

[Attributes]

Choose the Attributes you wish to increase. This will affect your character.

[Points to allocate= 4]

I paused. Four? At level 1 you always only get a single point... Could it be because I had unallocated points before being flung halfway across the world, and it stayed? Not being one to complain about a silver lining, I looked to the menu again.

[Attributes]

Choose the Attributes you wish to increase. This will affect your character.

[Points to allocate= 4]

Strength 10

Vitality 10

Agility 10

Willpower 10

Intelligence 10

Acrobatics 10

Luck 10

[Race Attributes]

The Norskai is a hardy people from the cold north. They have survived through severe weather conditions their entire lives. Where others would have quickly perished, they remained and so they have gained firsthand knowledge how to endure and stand fast in times when storms would hit at a moment’s notice.

Endurance 1

Survival 2

A bit of relief came my way. Claire had said, there would be a survival mechanic overhaul. The extra Race attribute for it meant I was a bit better off in extreme weather related conditions than some of the other races. It still did little to change my situation.

I gave one point to Strength, which would make me hit harder and be able to carry more. Strong guy stuff. I had to put one in Vitality to increase my health and resistances just a tad. Survival was a no brainer for my third point. I NEEDED TO SURVIVE! Lastly, I added one to Luck. That was one thing paramount for me to get through this.

I closed my menus and looked around, a gust of freezing air blew past me. My exposure bar was down to half. Looking at the fox, I watched it jump to get to places. So, I tried my hand in it. Walking through thick snow would be too much of a hindrance. There was a small cluster of trees in the middle of an open area to my left. Apart from those trees, the only other trees for a quite a distance on the plain were a larger cluster a relative distance away. It would mean a lot more cover from the elements.

But, it also invited the chance of something nasty to find me, and that promptly ruled it out for the foreseeable future.

I jumped and actually cleared the snow before landing a meter away. I blew out a breath of relief, my acrobatics were just high enough to jump like this. Sure, I would tire after several bigger jumps, but walking would take me twice as long in snow.

Upon reaching the clump of trees, I noticed it was about ten trees. Night wasn’t far away and I would not survive the night out in the open. My shivering already got worse. I needed some place where I might get out of the wind.

There was a nice little spot in the middle of some of the trees, I fished out my Skinning Knife and started striking at a bigger branch.

Hack!

I cringed.

Hack!

My mind ran scenarios of larger predators hearing me.

Hack!

Hack!

Then the branch fell off. I was happy that the Skinning Knife was sharp enough to get through it. I stripped off the foliage and heaved the branch against a solid tree, getting it to stand diagonally.

Then I repeated my process. But, each hit on the branches just made me more paranoid. Though, I had little choice.

Ten minutes later, I rubbed the frozen sweat from my forehead and put in place my seventh branch against the tree. I took the foliage and padded the outside. My exposure bar was down to a tenth. I quickly wriggled into the makeshift shelter and scrounged together the twigs that had remained. The flint in my hand shook as I took a breath out of nervousness and started hitting my Skinning Knife against it. Sparks flew down to the twigs. Nothing.

I struck the flint again and again.

Still nothing.

I looked at my exposure bar, it had only a sliver left. If I didn’t get the fire going, I would start losing health, and even after adding a point in Vitality I still only had fifty health points. It would disappear in minutes, if that.

I struck it again, my hands shook more out of anxiousness than the cold.

Again.

Again...

Then my health bar popped into view. It was getting really problematic.

45

I struck it again, faster.

40.

My health depleted faster than I expected.

Sweat rolled down my face as I continued striking.

35

It was not working!

Then I remembered watching a program of a woman preparing a fire in the wilds. She had used her knife to carve off small pieces of wood from a branch and used that as tinder.

Quickly, I took my knife and scraped several pieces off the wood. I bundled it together and hurriedly took up my flint again.

30

I struck it hard and sparks flew. And then smoke started drifting up. I grabbed the tinder and blew and blew on it. Then out of nowhere, flames appeared.

Overjoyed, I started piling small twigs over it and kept blowing air into the middle.

25

Then the fire took and heat finally spread over my face. Grabbing bigger sticks and a small branch, I placed it on top and watched as it grew in size.

I slumped down on the cleared ground, out of breath. Almost afraid, I looked up at my exposure bar.

It was turning to a warmer color as it filled up and stopped at half full. That was about as much I could expect from my makeshift efforts. I sighed in relief and closed my eyes feeling the heat ease over my cold extremities.

There was a sound. Opening my eyes, I saw a small round Info icon hovering on the left of my field of view. I lazily tapped it.

[You completed your first shelter!]

XP gained: 50

[You started your first fire!]

Wilderness Skill[Novice] +1

XP gained: 50

[Bonus Achievement][Getting it done under heavy duress. Top points!]

Patient Endurance[Novice] +1

XP gained: 200

A chuckle bubbled from my tired body. The game has a sense of humour it seemed. I closed the notifications and just lay there exhausted, somehow. It wasn’t long before my weariness overtook me and I drifted off to sleep.

***

I was startled awake. A branch cracked nearby.

In moments I sat straight up, completely alert. Another crack sounded. This was no small animal. I kept silent, suppressing my urge to breath quicker at the tension. I glanced back, the fire was down to glowing coals. It still gave off heat, but a little less so. Though, in the moment, I was glad that is wasn’t attracting too much attention. I tensed my muscles and leaned forward while keeping every part of me under complete control. My eye neared a tiny gap in the foliage cover between the supports.

There was moonlight lighting up the snow outside. I glanced as best I could from side to side. And then a large shadow passed through view. My breath got stuck in my throat. It was a predator, no two ways about it. Hoping to see what was out there, I called out in the barest of whispers.

“identify...”

????

[Monster] Level ??

????

[Extra Info] ??

[??][Extremely dangerous]

My heart beat quickened. If you couldn’t even see the type of creature. It was so far above your level, you would last less than a second against it. Sweat tumbled from my features in droves. This wasn’t good at all. I dared not move at all, there was no way I wanted to bite the dust while everything was so chaotic topside. Then fear tapped at me. If the Surge compromised the BeeHive, what did that mean for dying and respawing in the game? Were there any safeguards still in effect? I wanted to face-palm myself for not considering that little titbit before signing up for this crazy thing.

Regardless of the answer to that question, I didn’t want to get eaten at the moment. But, the uncertainty of it gnawed at me as I sat silent, hoping beyond hoping the creature would move away. Even then, I would have to get out of the wilderness if I wanted to try and log out safely.

A few minutes later my exposure bar lost its warm glow and started ebbing away again below half. With as much caution as I could I slowly reached over and took a bigger twig. Cringing as it made the barest of sounds. I scraped together the last of the coals, and softly scraped off tinder with my knife at a snail pace and dropped it onto the coals. I inched my face down and took a deep breath.

A growl pierced to the air outside. For a moment I wanted to clap my hands over my ears at the intensity of it. I froze.

Then, in the distance another growl drifted in the air. I waited in anxiousness, before whatever creature was outside could be heard mashing through the snow. The sound of it became softer and I finally let out my breath.

In seconds, I was frantically blowing at my small fireplace, desperate to get the thing going again.

Luckily, it only took a few seconds before the heat started up again and my exposure settled back down again.

Ding! Sounded inside my head. I tapped the notification.

[Staying undetected from a hostile monster or NPC of a much higher level]

Stealth +1

Luck +1

XP gained: 590

I gasped. That was a huge gain! To gain a greater attribute point, did not normally happen. It only meant, that whatever had been out there was really bad news. Still, I was really happy for the award.

As I sat there, I fed the fire until it was bigger again. Unlike earlier, I was anything but calm. The place was way too dangerous to be in. Yet, there was absolute nothing I could do about it. The only way out of there was like climbing a sheer cliff with no ropes. Possible, but highly unlikely, that is unless you are an expert climber. For me however, it meant all that time I had not spent studying up on the very game I was working on, was biting me in the ankle right now.

I slumped against the tree and tried to keep vigilant, even though it felt like my eye lids were made of lead.

Time slogged by, and I kept the fire nice and big. The exposure to elements was far worse at night and especially in storms. Luckily, there was no storm, yet. I just had to make it to the morning, and not get eaten while I’m at it.

I awoke with a start. I had fallen asleep. My eyes darted from left to right, but everything was still intact. I sighed in relief when I noticed the fire still smouldering. Though, as I looked at my shelter, I could see light filtering through. Joy erupted in me and I opened up a hole. The sun was out.

The pure exposure during day was much less, giving me a real chance to go out and hunt for the materials I need to actually have a better chance at survival in this place.

I opened the side of my shelter and stepped outside. The sun was nice and warm. I breathed in happily.

Then I spotted eyes staring at me intently and I stopped.