The next week passed in a blur of setting into new routines, with Claire being the builder and Skye being the explorer, which they both seemed to have a skill for.
Claire had more education than Skye due to growing up on the Fleet, where mechanical expertise was a necessity. Even so Claire was studying to become an engineer and her knowledge far surpassed even her peers on the floating city.
In no time at all the clearing got wider and wider and a perimeter of fallen trees was laid down around their new camp, which was moved to the direct centre of the clearing. Claire was finding it easy to cut down the trees with mighty swings of her sword, making it as heavy and dense as the ground she stood on.
Dragging the trees was slow, but only as slow as she usually was by transferring weight from one leg to another as she walked backwards. She said the speed was getting faster but it was hard to see.
He learned that her title was "Warden of the Castle Wall", which was really fitting, she was like a wall herself, or at least as unmoving as one. Skye felt a bit silly telling her he was a Druid of the Seed, or whatever that meant, but she already said she'd be his teammate, can't take it back now.
She also had two abilities like he did. One innate and one spell she could activate.
Her innate ability and minions had to do with matter and force. She could transfer the weight and density of things she was touching, and the force she absorbs can be stored inside of her and then be expelled. Her active spell is a taunt that seemed to work as an area of effect spell, taunting everything within sight of her to become super pissed at her. Skye thought that was funny due to the fact that he would bet that no one had ever been mad at her in her whole life. She was just one of those people, built to be loved by all.
The camp perimeter wall started out as the height of a single fallen tree on its side all the way around the clearing, and by the end of the week it was now 1.5 meters high with a single entrance which was guarded by the replanted Flower Boys.
Could a beast easily climb these walls? Yeah, without a doubt. Did it make the two feel more safe? No not really but at least now they had a cool wall. It was held together by weak roots and notches put into place, but it was their wall nonetheless.
The web of roots that reached out 300 meters in each direction was also finished, weaving in and out of each other, stealing the design from a spider web. Now if there was a vibration Skye could tell how far away and how strong it was more accurately.
So even if something started to climb the wall Claire would be waiting for it on the other side sword in hand. It felt nice to not get snuck up on.
They also had a better understanding of where they were positioned. To the north it was about half a day's worth of sunlight to travel out of the forest and into the mountains, to the west about 3 hours to where Skye started, south was endless and so was the east.
These were all just assumptions based on their feeling of time, but it was truly hard to tell.
Skye had ventured out almost every day, only staying back once to create rope to be used to keep the walls together, and had yet to find anyone else. The forest was big, but could it really be that big?
He had a few more places marked out to check, one was a ruined structure farther south than he had been before, almost to the point where he would have to hide out there and return the next day, something he wasn't really excited to do. But if he was going to find more people, he had to take some chances.
The battles were continuing every night and the monsters were getting more brave and deadly as time went on. If things continued this way, it wouldn't be long until they had to fight all night long every night. Or be overrun. Those were the only two options.
They came up with a battle plan early on to help keep up with the increasing numbers.
Skye would locate a large pack getting close and then lure the monsters into the opening of the gate. They'd have to either funnel in and face Claire's large blade or climb the wall and get stabbed by Skye's spear or blown to bits by a Flower Boy.
The fights were hard but they were getting better. The more shards they got the stronger they felt. One thing remained constant.
They both loved those Flower Boys so much, and it was safe to say the Flower Boys loved them too.
They both had quite a few slivers to absorb each day due to this and enough meat to keep their bellies full. Which lead to the first enhanced tool Skye saw other than the ones he was given at the start.
When he received it the feeling of absorption felt weird, like he was expecting to take a breath of air and a bug flew into his mouth, but with his chest. The world wrote into existence at the same time
[A part of this world resigns in your soul]
When he unfocused his eyes and allowed himself to be pulled back into his mark, a cube shaped hole was carved into a towering wall and inside he found it on display. A long dagger with a wide base and white leather handle. Flakes of different coloured metal shone in the blade, almost as if they were falling snow. He picked it up, inspected it and found the world shift and the letters take shape, moving along like the end credits to a movie.
[Name: Snow Carver]
[Engraving: The winter was coming to an end and the forest trees still resemble the tips of the mountains, a young man in dark furs sat atop a stump and mindlessly carved a stick into a point. When he finished he threw Snow Carver into the forest with all his might and held up his newly pointed branch and exclaimed "Ah, finally, a weapon of my own."]
[Rank: Bronze 1]
[Status: Dead 0/50]
Enchantment: [Cold Abandonment]
[Cold Abandonment: Cuts from this blade leave a lingering freeze causing frostbite. Increased damage to areas affected by frostbite. Does not cause bleeding.]
Skye had no idea he was going to get a backstory as well as the enhanced tool, he didn't know if it had any meaning, but it was still an interesting read. He thought his staff just came with a message from his god, but maybe it also had its own story? Throwing a dagger away in favour of a pointy stick seems quite dumb but at least he got the dagger in the end. A win is a win. Not many enemies were going to bleed out due to this short dagger so even the enchantment seems to be a good replacement.
"Hey Dubs, this thing says that its Rank is Bronze and its status is Dead, what does that mean?"
Dubs floated about watching Skye fiddle with it and his stick
"Everything you see here and everything you get here comes from a dead god, it may seem full of life but it's not going anywhere, it will always stay the same, and so will that tool. It will forever be stuck at the lowest level, Bronze. The more powerful the god of the world the more it can improve. You can waste slivers into bringing it back to life but that seems pretty wasteful to me."
Skye was was surprised he actually got useful information out of Dubs, which Dubs seemed to sense as he replied
"Thanks for asking"
It might have sounded dumb at the time but Skye actually replaced the rock in his Thorn with the dagger at the end, really quite enjoying the reach it gave him. He attached the handle to the end of the base of Thorn and wrapped the roots tightly around until it was just the tip of the tagger showing. Increasing its reach ever so slightly. So his pointy stick Thorn became an even pointy…er stick? Either way he now had the most pointy stick of all.
The words appeared as soon as he fused the last of the roots together.
[Absorb Snow Carver into Thron]
[Yes][No]
Skye reactively went to say no, he didn't want to Cold Abandonment that quickly. It would also be sad to see the dagger given up so quickly again after reading its backstory. But Skye knew he didn't know enough about the world and needed to find out what this did. If he didn't do it now he may never do it. He hesitated, and then mentally said yes.
[Cold Abandonment Destroyed]
[Snow Carver Destoryed]
The words cut Skye deep, he felt the cold of the blade without ever being able to use it.
This better be worth it
His thought was instantly followed by the next announcement.
[Evolved Thorn acquired]
Skye pulled up the information to see what changed, unable to hide his nervousness. What if there were wrong combinations to make and he just messed up both of his weapons.
[Name: Thorn]
[Engraving: "For cold nights in unknown lands, I cannot promise you much light, or warmth, or safety. I cannot watch you grow. I can only give you the ability to provide these for yourself, my child." The hungry god read and laughed. He cared not for the love of a mother, only for power. He destroyed the staff and the heartfelt engraving to create something new. Create something as hungry as himself.]
[Rank: Bronze II]
[Status: Alive 15/250]
[Enchantment: Warmth Embedded, Cold Cut]
[Hot and Cold: The shaft burns hot while the tip never unfreezes. Hits with the body of the staff will burn while slashes and cuts with the tip will freeze. Cannot cause bleeding. Critical damage to burnt or frozen areas.]
He kept looking at Thorn, unsure of what to think about it. The shape was the same, the sharp point and the long staff, yet Warmth Embedded and Cold Abandonment morphed together to become something new and seemingly more powerful. The warm staff now burned enemies and the cold knife still froze them.
Not only that, it was now alive and even had 15 slivers spare. Skye felt the spear in his hands and it was still warm, maybe slightly more so, but not hot enough to burn him. He spun it around in his hands, a movement that should be awkward to someone untrained like him, but it felt like the staff was guiding him slightly. It spun around his body, the blade cutting through the air making a slight slashing sound.
It spun around him as he turned, going in front and behind him picking up speed, and then he launched it into the air. It flipped so fast it looked like a blur, Skye wanted to duck and run away before it fell directly onto him, but he stuck out his hand instead. The body of Thorn landed in his palm and in one motion he brought the point down in front of him, stopping right before the ground.
Skye let out a breath, he was unknowingly holding it in. He was amazed at himself and looked around desperately to see if Claire saw that. She was in the woods already and nowhere in sight. Of course the one time he looked cool it would be when he was all by himself.
Sure both Claire and Skye would have rather it been a spare set of clothes but had to make do with what they had, taking time to wash and dry them while the other was out working, but this was the next best thing. Skye felt more powerful with Thorn in his hands, like he could survive anything thrown at him.
At the end of the week Skye could no longer put it off, he was going to have to make an overnight trip. He mostly explored everything that was within a day trip from their camp by now and needed to find more people as quickly as possible. With the new Thorn in his hand he felt like it was possible.
Wrapping himself in ropes and making sure he had a belly full of water and monster meat, he started the journey south, pouch full of seeds ready to tangle.
Claire yelled as he got to the start of the forest.
"Be safe! Get back soon please! If you die the Flower Boys die and that would be the worst day ever, so please stay alive!"
She was right. He had to stay alive, he had to do it for the Flower Boys, his Flower Boy children who he very much loved.