You have died!
Randy sighed.
Dying was becoming his specialty. First it had been the frogs, then the wolf and more frogs. Now his problem was snakes and beetles.
The delay between dying and being reborn was now taking longer. It was frustrating, but it also gave him time to go over his previous fights and see where he was going wrong. He now had a system for fighting frogs, and avoiding wolves, but snakes and beetles were some things he hadn’t figured out yet. The snakes, mostly little green ones, were poisonous and fast. The exception being the Yellowtail Pythons that were huge and crushed him to death. Then there were the beetles. They had nasty pinchers and incredibly hard shells, and always arrived in groups of three.
When the timer delay ended, Randy opened his eyes and started out again. He moved fast until he arrived at the first frog ambush site. He pulled out his rock and slowed down. He spotted two fake leaves and walked between them to trigger the ambush. One plopped out on the ground on his left to get his attention while the one on the right waited until he turned towards the first one. As soon as he turned, the second frog jumped.
Using his trusty rock, Randy stunned and smashed both frogs with relative ease. His skill in blunt weapons was now up to level 4. Despite his frequent deaths, Randy found that he was still gaining skills, making the repetitive dying a little easier to handle.
Looting the frogs, Randy started jogging. He had to go slower now because the second group of frogs were never in the same spot twice. After taking those frogs out, Randy made a sprint to the tree line at the edge of the swamp.
This seemed to be the end of the frog territory, and where the snakes and beetles roamed. Randy wasn’t sure why there were so many beetles in the forest, especially ones the size of full-grown bulldogs.
Leaning against one of the trees, Randy kept a wary eye out for snakes. The trees and thick underbrush were full of them. Looking at his favorite rock, Randy concluded he needed a new weapon. One with some range, anything to keep the monsters away long enough for him to retaliate or run.
Grabbing a piece of vine that was tickling his ear, Randy pulled on it. A long piece of it moved, but didn’t snap, it just stretched tight and then snapped back to its original position. Frowning at the uncooperative vine, Randy examined it.
Swamp Elm Vine. Found on the edges of the Red Hedge Swamp, these vines maintain their structural integrity even under high tension. A favored building material of the legendary Canuckian Beavers.
Unlike the vines of the trees in the swamp, these vines were thicker, and longer. The vine bothering his ear was at least thirty feet long.
Randy slapped his head. He’d died almost a dozen times since he’d gotten to the forest section and not once had he stopped and used Examine on the vines. He’d examined the Swamp Elm Trees, but never the vines. The vines were thin, slightly thicker than packaging twine. But considering how strong it was, he could probably make a rope out of it.
Randy pulled harder on the vine and waited for it to snap. The vine grew taut and he pulled harder, but instead of snapping, the vine pulled his body back. Damn, this was strong stuff, he thought as he re-evaluated his method of collecting the vines. Most of the vines were wrapped around the tree’s trunk and then from the branches they fell back towards the ground. Randy grabbed one of the vines going up the tree and yanked on it. It moved but then stopped. Tiny sections of vines had grown right into the tree, anchoring it in place.
Deciding he needed the proper tool for the job, Randy started searching the ground until he found a nearly flat rock with a jagged edge. Using his new rock saw, Randy cut the tiny sections of vine holding the main vine to the tree. He climbed the tree, following the vine until he was hanging on a branch, stretched out as far as he could reach, cutting the last section of vine away from the tree. When the vine fell to the ground, Randy let out a sigh of relief and made his way back down the tree. His body was sticky from tree sap, but he felt a sense of accomplishment. He was sure the vine was going to be useful. The question was, what was it going to be useful for?
Randy coiled the vine up and placed it on the ground. He circled it and tried to decide what its best use would be. Right now, it looked like a thin but strong section of rope. And Randy certainly intended to keep one large piece of vine as a rope. Rope was always useful. But he needed something to help him survive the snakes and beetles, not a general utility item.
Inspiration came to Randy as he visualized snakes biting his arms as he tried to pull them off his body when they fell out of the trees on top of him. Grabbing the vine, he started wrapping it around his arm, keeping the vines nice and tightly packed together as he coiled it around his forearm. When it reached his wrist, he cut the vine and wove the end into the other sections of vines.
Congrats hero! You have created a Swamp Elm Vine Bracer. +5 to armor
Randy grinned at the notification, then looked at his still bare limbs. He then looked to all the trees around him covered in vines. “Time to make myself some armor.”
After removing a dozen vines from the nearby trees, Randy made himself another bracer, two Swamp Elm Greaves, and then wove several vines together to give himself a thirty-foot length of rope that he wrapped around his belly and shoulders for an extra layer of protection. The game didn’t give him credit for creating rope armor, but it did give him credit for the rope. Had another player created rope armor already, or was he only given credit for the first unique item he created? It was something to keep an eye on going forward.
Looking at his new armor in satisfaction, Randy realized he still had a problem. His best weapon was his favorite rock. He’d tried using sticks, but the trees around the swamp were as tough as old leather until they broke off and hit the ground. Then they absorbed the swamp water and started rotting. Perhaps once he made it further into the woods, he’d find a good length of stick for a club or a staff, but he hadn’t found one yet.
Sighing, Randy decided that was his next goal. But first he needed to find some food. Crawling up and down trees cutting free vines was hard work and he was hungry.
Luckily, the edge of the swamp was home to several types of berry bearing brushes. Not all of which were edible. He’d found that out the hard way, as one of his many deaths had come via poisoning.
Carefully searching the swamp, Randy found a nice big bramble berry bush. The berries were a dark, almost black, purple, big, and juicy, with just the right amount of sweetness and tartness. The problem with eating bramble berries wasn’t the berries themselves but the bramble branches were thick with prickles and razor-sharp thorns that were, at times, over an inch in size.
Carefully holding a branch out of his way while he picked some of the branches from the interior of the bush, Randy’s fingers moved and lost their grip on the branch. It whipped back to its original position and the end of the branch slapped him in the face. The wicked thorns opened several cuts.
Retreating away from the dangerous bush, Randy popped the precious berries into his mouth with one hand while he wiped the blood off his cheek with the other. He was equally annoyed with the branches and happy with the delicious treasures they protected. Perhaps next time he’d use his vine rope to hold the branch back so he could get to the berries in the interior of the bush. But then he thought about the bramble branches getting stuck in his rope and decided that might not be the best idea. However, it did inspire him for a new weapon.
Stuffing the remaining berries into his mouth, Randy pulled out his sharp-edged stone and as gently as he could, started sawing off lengths of bramble bush. Once he had a dozen short pieces of the branches, he headed back to the trees and cut a few more long chunks of vine. He started weaving the bramble branches and vines together. When he was done, he got a new series of notifications.
Congrats Hero! You have created a low-quality Bramble Thorn Whip. +6 damage
Congrats Hero! You have created multiple weapons and armor using only the materials on hand. You have gained the skill Creative Crafter. All unique weapons and armor created gain 10% extra damage or damage resistance per level.
The skill, Creative Crafter, was cool, but what excited Randy was the damage level of his whip. It could do nearly as much damage as his trusty rock and he wouldn’t have to be up close to use it.
Nervously, Randy started practicing with his new whip.
Using the trunk of a tree for his target, Randy tried the whip.
It sucked.
Randy frowned and tried again. This time he ended up smacking himself in the head.
Taking a deep breath, he tried again, and managed to not hurt himself, but the results were similar to his previous attempts.
It still sucked.
With a heavy sigh. Randy went and cut more vines and bramble branches. It was time for design revisions.
Before getting started, Randy headed back into the swamp, going to an area he knew that was like a shallow lake it had so much water. He found a good-sized reed and pulled one out of the ground by its roots. The reed was about as thick as his thumb at the bottom and narrowed down to the size of his pinky at the top.
He tried to snap the reed in half, but the reed bent and started to crack, but it didn’t break. Using his sharp rock, he sawed the reed in half. As he’d suspected, the swamp reed was hollow. Wanting to make sure he had lots of reeds to test and create things with, Randy pulled out as many reeds as he could before he spotted a pair of eyes in the water watching him.
Taking his big bundle of reeds, Randy backed away from the eyeballs. Thankfully, the eyes and whatever creature had them, stayed where they were.
When he got back to dry land, Randy grabbed a reed and cut it to a length of two feet. He then started making a new whip, this time pushing his braided vines through the section of reed, giving himself a firm handle. Instead of immediately adding the bramble branches, Randy decided that maybe it was better to practice with a whip that couldn’t carve his skin up so easily.
This time the whip worked.
Randy tried different attacks, overhand, underhand, spinning attacks, and any combination he could think of. For the most part, his movements were slow, clumsy, and awkward, yet he was still able to consistently hit the target. He practiced for a solid hour, holding the whip at different lengths, trying different techniques, and studying how the whip reacted to the motion of his arm and wrist movement. Several times he hit himself in the arms, face, body, and legs with the whip. Each time he thanked himself for being smart enough to not include bramble branches into this version of the whip. He quickly discovered that his previous attempts at a whip had too many bramble branches. The thorns were only valuable at the end of the whip. Having them on the main body of the whip was only going to end up hurting him instead of his targets.
After his hours of practice, Randy started making a new version of the whip. This time he made the vine section longer and made three different length handles. Once he found the right length of handle, he threaded the vines through the length of reed and then finished the weapon by braiding in the bramble branches to the last foot of the whip. When he was finished, he got another pair of notifications.
Congrats Hero! You have created a mid-grade quality Bramble Thorn Whip. +9 damage
Congrats Hero! You have increased Creative Crafter to Level Two. Keep refining your skills to make superior weapons. All unique weapons and armor created gain 12% extra damage or damage resistance per level.
The newest version of his whip had significantly better damage, and it felt better in his hands. He attacked the tree with his new whip and was satisfied to see the thorns carve scars into the bark of the tree. He had a weapon to use. Now to find a real target to try it out on.
Not sure how effective the weapon would be against the beetles, Randy decided to test it against the snakes. The snakes were deadly and quick, but he felt far more comfortable about his chances fighting them at a distance than when they were crawling all over his body. Between his new vine armor and his whip, he felt much better prepared for fighting the slithering suckers.
When he got to the first tree with a snake hiding in the branches waiting for him to walk under it, Randy attacked.
The whip gave a satisfying cracking sound as the thorny tip sliced through the air. But that was the end of his satisfaction. His aim was off, and he missed the snake altogether. What he did do, was piss it off.
The snake whipped its head around and then launched itself out of the tree towards him.
Randy gasped as the large snake flew through air and landed on him. He tried to push it off but it already had its fangs dug into his neck.
His health dropped fast and notifications about poison popped up but he was too busy trying to remove the snake to worry about his notifications. He could feel the pain and his arm was going numb from the poison. He didn’t need the game to tell him this wasn’t going to end well.
You have died!
As the world went black and he was transported back to his starting point, Randy took stock of his progress and was pleased. Sure, he was still way too squishy and prone to dying, but he was learning and adapting. Already he was planning how to defend against snake attacks, and working on increasing his accuracy with his whips.
Eventually, all this dying would pay off.
He hoped