Chapter 10: Preparation
Zac woke up the next morning feeling sore, but his wounds had obviously healed even further. It no longer pained him overly to put weight on his wounded leg, and he could actually turn his midriff without a blazing pain erupting.
The smell in the camper was getting pretty bad though, and he knew he had to do something about it if this was going to be his base for the foreseeable future. He gathered the bloody bed sheets he had fallen asleep on when he passed out from his wounds and put them in a garbage bag. He didnt dare throw it outside yet though, afraid the smell of blood would attract beasts. With some detergent he spent another 30 minutes cleaning most of the blood away, making the trailer go from looking like the site of a vampire orgy to a serial killer hideout. The blood had badly stained multiple places, especially around the dining area, and it wasnt something hed be able to fix in the short run. At least it smelled a lot better now.
Finally, he decided to waste some water for a quick shower in the trailer bathroom, even though the water was limited. After some intensive scrubbing away the blood caked all over him, the filth was mostly rinsed away. He stepped out of the shower and donned another set of clothes, feeling like a new man. When showering he had also noticed that he seemed to have actually gotten more in shape, with most of this gut gone and his muscles seeming, if not bigger, then harder and more compact than before. It seemed that the stats had some effect on his physical appearance as well. Hopefully, an increase in intelligence wouldnt make his head larger and larger though.
After a quick breakfast, he was finally ready to head out according to plans he had made yesterday after browsing through the shop. There were a dizzying array of possibilities to choose from when building an outpost, even when most of the options were disabled.
Many of them he could understand or at least somewhat intuit the purpose for using a lifetime of playing video games. There were buildings such as an inn, blacksmith, different types of stores, bank and so on. Most of these required a town though. There was also something he was extremely keen on getting, the teleporter. If he built that he might be able to actually teleport to his hometown in one go.
There was one confusing aspect of the buildings though, which was that there were often hundreds of versions of most of the buildings, especially the commercial ones. Even though they seemed to fill the same function they were of different design and some minor differences in the description. After a while he could only surmise that the different choices represented different factions or planets. It seemed that creating a store wouldnt actually create some NPC-style beings, but rather move people here from other planets or intergalactic corporations.
There was also a huge amount of supporting buildings that could improve the offense, defense or improve the town in other manners. There seemed to even be some sort of training facility that seemed to be able to slowly improve stat points without leveling. If possible Zac would have gone on a shopping spree, but he quickly realized the harsh reality that roughly 10 000 Nexus Coins would only be able to buy a few of the most basic buildings.
He had formulated a plan yesterday after browsing through his options for hours but needed to explore some more before actually spending the few coins he had.
Zac had seen a hill the day he had been forced to go out to gather firewood, and he planned to scale it to get a better lay of the land. Donned in a fresh set of clothing and his trusty hatchet he once again set out into the woods.
Soon he had walked up the hill, hunkered over to not be spotted by any potential threats. Luckily the hill was filled with lush bushes and even a tall tree at the top, making for some simple protection. Unfortunately the hill wasnt tall enough to give a complete overview of the surroundings as it turned out, with the crowns of larger trees still obscured the distance inland. Still, he could see his trailer and further on the ocean.
Still, he wanted to see whether he was actually on an island, or if the system had teleported any type of civilization in the vicinity. It would be a bit insane if he lived as a transient mountain man in the trailer if a town was just a few kilometers away.
He swung the axe and embedded it slightly in the tree, and then started climbing it for a better vantage. Zac once again marveled at the improvement of his constitution from his increase in stats. He felt like a gibbon, almost effortlessly dragging himself upwards along the branches with his arms, something that would have been an impossible work-out in the past.
Soon he was almost at the crown of the tree, afraid to continue up any further as the branches seemed inadequate to support his weight. A quick glance around unfortunately realized his fears. It very much seemed that he was on an island without any civilization in sight. However he couldnt be completely sure, as there was actually a mountain off in the distance. It wasnt gargantuan, but still large enough to solidly block any visibility of what was beyond. It looked quite odd to have a steep mountain right next to the ocean, but Zac guessed that was what happened when the system pressed the randomizer for a world. The good news that there was land in sight in the distance, though it looked like a few scattered islands, rather than a solid land-mass.
The island (as Zac decided to call it until proven wrong) he was on was huge, and he couldn't properly assess the size. He and his trailer were on the far edge of it, while the ever-shining red beam of light was almost on the opposite side, in a vale halfway between the center of the island and the mountain. He guessed that the reason why he still only had encountered one of the demon dogs was that they mainly spawned scattered around the incursion itself.
Zac didnt have time to analyze the situation any further, as a branch in the periphery of his sight suddenly exploded into movement and instantly was upon him. Before he had time to adapt to the situation, a brown snake had wrapped itself a few loops around his torso, leaving only the arm he used to hold onto the tree for leverage free. The snake seemed to be over 3 meters long and slightly thicker than his arm.
He immediately felt an intense pressure on his chest, the air leaving his lungs and wounds on his side screaming in protest. Zac strained until his face was red with exertion, but was unable to free his trapped arm at all. The snake had him in a vise, and even with his improved strength he could not get free. Its head slowly rose up towards his, a hiss escaping from its maws.
By now all air had been squeezed out of Zacs lungs, his consciousness starting to get fuzzy and lights flickered in his sight. Zac knew he was running out of time, it was time for a Hail Mary action. He suddenly let go of the tree with his free hand, grabbed the head of the constrictor and bashed it with all the force he could muster into the tree trunk. The slam obviously had an effect on the snake, as it slightly released him from its grip. With newfound strength from a ragged breath, he slammed the snakes head twice again into the tree with even more fervor.
However, just as Zac was feeling jubilant about escaping death's grasp he felt the branch he stood on give way, and both he and the still entwined snake came crashing down.
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