[h2]Orc Camp[/h2]
[hr][@ERode][hr]
[quote=SYSTEM:Esfir]
Obtained New Item!

[b]Flint Hatchet[/b] - Equip, Weapon/Tool - [i]A sharper edge than a Stone Hatchet of equivalent size, but lighter and more brittle. Requires more strength and proper alignment to get a good chop, but most wood will be cut faster.[/i]

[b]Borrowed Antler Pickaxe[/b] - Equip, Weapon/Tool - [i]A pickaxe made with a sturdy piece of wood and a sharpened antler. Can harvest softer stones and some ores! It can be used as a piercing weapon, even on hard shelled creatures, but it wasn't designed for that. [b]High Quality[/b]. [b]On Loan from Bowbh[/b].[/i]

You've attempted to Craft something!
Process: Handcrafts
Tools: Flint Hatchet, Jackalope Point
Materials: Elwet Antlers, Harpy Hide Strips, Tatzelwurm Hide Strips

...Success! However, a Tool was broken:
Jackalope Point > Broken Jackalope Point

Obtained Items:
Antler Bracer (Elwet-Harpy)
Antler Bracer (Elwet-Tatzelwurm)

[b]Antler Bracers[/b] - Equip, Armor - [i]A type of bone armor used to protect the arms. Materials such as fangs, teeth, horn, antler, etc can be quite tough, but typically aren't as hard as metals. They are somewhat resistant to physical damage, though less so against Blunt impacts. [b]Light Defense Boost![/b][/i][/quote]

Before settling to her crafts, Esfir made another loop of the camp to [b]search for any source of water[/b]. It turned out there was a [b]mountain spring[/b] of some kind available...however, [b]there also seemed to be a problem[/b].

The spring came from somewhere higher up the mountain-side near the back end of the camp, and the orcs had constructed a rough channel from where it naturally spilled out of the rocks to a pool down on level ground. Piles of rock and bark made small dams to redirect the stream, another stone had been cracked apart and cleared so that a ditch could be dug into the dirt, then it led to a koi-pond-sized, circular hole lined with gravel at the bottom. Another channel had been dug that led under part of the camp's fence, so that if the pool ever got full enough to overflow the excess would be carried away from the tents.

[b]However, currently it seemed like only a bathtub's worth of water was left in the pool,[/b] and it looked somewhat cloudy. As Esfir turned from it to seek out a place to do her crafts, she would see two orcs lowering a large clay pot into the water and then hauling it out between them, reducing the supply by a gallon's worth.

"Won't be long afore we gotta start goin' to da lake again with them stupid big tubs!" grumbled one. "[b]Why's it keep stoppin' like dat[/b]!?"

"The place it comes out is all clear--[b]gotta be somethin' higher up on da mountain[/b]!" snarled the other, as his companion foisted all the weight onto him. He hefted it easily enough, but didn't look thrilled about it. "Either the underground is blocked, or somethin' plugged it at the mouth!"

Esfir now had new tools, new armor, and at least one new objective. Giving away her Harpy meant that she might need to find another meal before the night was over--although, based on what her body felt now, it seemed going without three squares a day wouldn't starve her even if she was a growing Runt. Aside from that, the only thing left to do on her "checklist" following Auguz's orders was to find some shelter.
[hr][@King Cosmos][hr]
Despite the "System's" similarities, this certainly wasn't the same as a videogame even compared to an "immersive" RPG--in something like that, a task like "tanning leather" simply required killing some randomly generated animal (a task she now knew from experience to be painful, scary, and tiring) hitting a few buttons to "loot" it (compared to physically carving the bloody things open with a rock, or skewering their meaty bits over a fire, or lugging them over one's shoulder down a mountain), and then walking to some arbitrarily assigned merchant or crafting station to hit a few more buttons. Boom, instant leather, which with a few more clicks would become a piece of armor or something else useful.

No. Her hands kept cramping; she was covered in gunk up to her elbows; the salt stung the tiny cuts and scrapes holding the rock's sharp edges gave her; the tanning solution apparently had brains and who knew what else mixed into it, and the smell was more than positively foul...

Was Shamar making her do so many things just to make it more convenient for herself? Or was this just how it had to be? The orcs were primitive, and crude, and brutal...and yet, humans had been forced to do these same things at some point in their history. Hunting one's own food. Making tools and shelter by hand.

Forced. Akeno didn't consider herself a hard worker, but neither had she exactly figured out what it was she would've done with her life if she hadn't had someone else breathing down her neck all the time. School, extracurriculars, college--it was all just a matter of meeting her parents' expectations. Karate had been something she'd chosen for herself, and she had been able to choose how much effort she wanted to put into it. But now, here she was again, being forced to do things just to...just to survive?

Not for her parents' approval. Not for a grade. Not for money. Maybe not because she wanted to...but not because anyone else made her, either. This was for [i]her[/i] survival.

By the time she finished, her hands felt like she'd been holding them up to a sandpaper grinder, her forearms ached, and her nose hairs might've singed. But, if she ever had to go it alone in this new world, [b]at least now she had an idea of how to tan pelts...right?[/b]

"Hmm!" Shamar, whose hands were also bloody up to the elbows--save that hers looked much fresher, considering the bowls under her kills were slap full of crimson goop--laid a freshly harvested hide over the fleshing board Akeno had cleared. She looked over the Runt's work, occasionally sniffing a hide or clicking her tongue. The "finished" set that Akeno had just finished tying to the drying racks caused the Head Hunter to curl the corner of her lip up over one fang in a half-smile. She watched Akeno combing the last of the pelts before nodding her head.

"Good job, Runt! Yas got a lot betta hand-eye-quarter-nations den any o' dese udda mukhs! Wait right dere!" Shamar disappeared into the yurt for a moment. Akeno heard several kinds of shuffling and objects tossed around, before the scout reemerged...with [b]a rough, yet warm looking hide vest[/b]. It even had a design on it, which looked like it'd been "burned" into the material with a hot piece of charcoal or something--a rough outline of a deer's head with antlers like lightning bolts.

"It's a little big, but ya tug dese here cords on da side to tighten it up!" The hunter pointed out. "[b][b]You's lucky ya did every-ting right[/b][/b]--if ya had messed up or tore my pelts, I was only gonna give ya some strips and cordage!" She practically shoved it into Akeno's hands, but thankfully all the gore both of them were covered with didn't seem like it would permanently stain. "Made it myself wif a [b]Bowhorn[/b] buckskin!"

[quote=SYSTEM:Akeno]
QUEST COMPLETE!
[s]Quest: Tannery Crash Course[/s]

Reward Obtained: [b]Bowhorn Deer Vest[/b] - Equip, Armor - [i]A simple leather vest, but Bowhorn hide is tougher than that of a normal deer. It is somewhat resistant to physical damage, though less so against Slashing blades. [b]Light Defense Boost![/b][/i][/quote]
[hr][hr]
[h2]South Caves[/h2]
[hr][@Kazemitsu][hr]
As Grunthor closed in on the spider, from this side he could see the [b]earlier wound[/b] his companion had talked about. It wasn't one either of them had inflicted--but there was a [b]gash[/b] of some kind across the back of its thorax, and [b]one of its legs had been injured[/b]. How long ago? That didn't seem like a clean blade swipe, but whatever it was had at least given them a helping hand.

[b]His club came down on another leg, eliciting a loud crunch as the chitinous joint gave way![/b] Considering the damage the dark orcling had done, that should be three of eight down? The spider screeched! But, even as he dealt it a wound, Grunthor [b]barely saw two more legs flash[/b]. One of them [b]slammed into his shoulder[/b], and he felt the bite of two small (relatively) hook-like claws. But they only poked him hard enough to draw blood; the spider's goal had been to push him away, and thus it had. He landed on his bum just in time for [b]its other claw to slash at his club--with a crack, another one of the bone spikes shattered and the wooden haft lost a splintery chunk![/b]

"[Miasma Bolt]!" The distinct sound of dark magic followed the other Runt's voice. "Make it worth--Yeah!" The spider screeched again and reeled back, rotating its body on the wall. [b]Part of its face was now covered in the blue fluid that passed for its blood, but now its head was upright and its fat bottom hung low.[/b]

[b]Low enough that it sprayed a wide arc of liquid web at both of them![/b]
[hr][hr]
[h2]Deep Forest[/h2]
[hr][@ReusableSword][hr]
Agar crept further north, and found himself coming across the same [b]game trail[/b] he had encountered when he first entered the area--or, at least, it was roughly the same width and seemed about the same age judging by the state of plantlife around it. In this area, too, the trees had thinned somewhat and most of the ground was covered in grass and moss. He could see, clustered around the roots of a tree less than two meters from his current position, several mushrooms!

[b]A single Red Cream cap stood out due to its distinctive colors...as did a lone Turtleshell! There were three more, pointy-capped mushrooms that were shiny silver towards their tops, dulling to gray, then black, then rusty red towards the base.[/b]

Further on than that, to the west-side of Agar's vision, was [b]a cluster of black bushes[/b]. Even from here, he could smell something like...dog poop? Rotting eggs? Whatever it was, it was NOT pleasant. The plants were short, scrabbly things with hanging seed pods that looked like...well, the kind of thing that would smell like dog poo.

And underneath those bushes, almost unnoticeable save for the fact that Agar's muffled steps hadn't alerted it and thus its head swiveled slowly from the opposite direction...[b]A Tatzelwurm![/b]

He'd seen a lot of this creature before and could probably take it, especially with the advantage of surprise--it wasn't an unknown quantity like that horned gator or the beetles. But, maybe he could also just grab the mushrooms and go...?