Zero walked through the forest with his woody backpack. Since he needed water and food to survive, he currently had the Harvest Critter tied around his waist while he explored. Since the mountains surrounding Roma were quite large, he figured that he must be quite a distance away from them. So his priority was to find shelter.
He figured a cave or a secluded ledge would do.
'Hopefully, this island isn't surrounded by just void. Otherwise, I'm completely screwed over.'
As Zero walked, he eventually got tired of holding his sword and the harvest critter. So he dismissed his sword and continued on his way.
A moment later, though, he resummoned his sword. In the distance, Zero spotted another Harvest Critter. Zero quickly skirted behind a tree and slowly put down his woody backpack.
Then he stalked the Critter as it came closer to him. A quick glance into the fractured plane revealed that this one was uninjured, so it was best not to engage. Like that, the Harvest Critter went by as Zero accordingly moved himself and the corpse around the tree to not be seen.
Zero's instincts died down, and he felt safe once more and continued his trek after dismissing his sword.
He had been walking for an hour now, and it was approaching night quicker than he would have liked. The shadows around him had already become much longer. Zero eventually stopped and cut off a piece from the Harvest Critter. After drinking what he could, he started chewing on the cut-off piece till it lost flavor.
It was in the dying moments of twilight that Zero found himself a place to sleep. After trekking for a while longer and avoiding a couple of Harvest Critters on the way, Zero found a deep, twisting indent under a 4 or so meter cliff. Upon entering the indent, one could round the corner and find a secluded place to sleep. It might be cramped, but it would do.
Zero rumaged around for a handful of small sticks. Then he littered them all around the entrance of his shelter. He hoped that a snap of the twig would alert him to oncoming danger.
Putting the Harvest Critters Corpse to the side, he laid down on the hard stone and quickly fell asleep.
Zero awoke to birds chirping and a sore back. Maybe sleeping on stone was not the best idea, but at least he slept with no troubles. Such as getting strangled by a Harvest Critter, getting revenge for his brother.
Speaking of the Harvest Critter's brother, Zero was thirsty, so he continued cutting down on the same limb until his thirst was saturated. In total, the creature had 6 limbs for Zero to drink from. So far, he was halfway through his first one, so he probably had plenty of time before he would be forced to kill another Harvest Critter.
The problem was that a day and a night revealed that Critter Juice was not the most filling. Zero would likely need to kill something else for him to eat.
'I feel surprisingly well rested… maybe it was that Harvest Talisman boon… enhances recovery or something.'
Zero was about to move the Harvest Critter's corpse and get on his way when he heard one of his twigs snap. He froze for a moment, then slowly reached for his sword.
He had two options: wait and hope it goes away, or sneak a peek at it and see what to do.
To his own surprise, he decided to be bold today. After all, whatever is out there could be a source of food for him. Even if it was a Harvest Critter, they seemed a bit dull and might not even notice him.
Slowly, Zero peered around the corner. Then, he felt all his anticipation wash out of his body. Standing atop a twig and pecking at the ground was one of the many blue birds around.
'I could still eat it though, right?'
Zero carefully took a step over his woody backpack in an attempt to creep up on the bird. Unfortunately for him, he stepped directly on a twig that he had placed.
Not even bothering to turn its head, the bird soared away. Zero threw his sword to no avail, then dismissed it. Picking up his water source, Zero decided to look for food.
For no particular reason, Zero continued his trek in the same direction. He was walking for a bit until he had the unfortunate luck of running into a Harvest Critter. This one was much smaller than Zero's current water source and only had three wiggly limbs.
Zero immediately dropped his backpack and summoned Valiant Blade. Upon the blade's manifestation, Zero immediately felt calmed by its enchantment.
For a moment, the two stared at one another. Then the Critter charged.
Zero parried the first strike from the Critter, then deflected the other. For a moment, he felt his blade becoming swifter as he struck the Critter's blocky body and brought his blade back around to parry the last attack from it.
{Seeker Harvest Gnat slain}
{Received seeker spirit crystal}
In a moment, the fight was over. Zero poked the body a couple of times to make sure it was dead, then breathed out a sigh of relief. Taking note of the messages, Zero opened the glyphs.
{
Name: 0
Tier: Seeker
Class: [Human]
Blessings: [Origin of Blood]
Curses: [???]
Boons: [Harvest Talisman]
Boons Equipped:
Skills:
[Optic Sight]
Spirit Level: 0/3
Spirit Crystals: 1 Seeker
Remembrances: [Valiant Blade]
}
Sure enough, it said he had a spirit crystal now. Zero was still unsure what it was, so he tried staring intently at it. When that did not work, he tried manifesting it like a remembrance. To his delight, a round shiny gem appeared in his hand.
It had many rough edges, but mostly resembled a sphere. It was shockingly light. Tossing it a couple of times in the air, Zero thought about what to do with it. Due to how it shared part of its name with spirit level, and that they were grouped closely together in the glyphs, Zero figured they were related somehow.
It was then that he felt a slight tug. The kind of tug the glyphs would give him when he first summoned them. Although this time, the tug was on his fingers. They were pulling them towards the spirit crystal. Zero's grip tightened on the crystal, and he could feel his fingers starting to dig into it.
Until it shattered into a myriad of blue fragments that thereafter disappeared. Zero vaguely felt something change inside him, and when he looked at the glyphs, he understood why. His spirit level now read ⅓.