Aura Skies : Rising Bones

Chapter 2 | Day 2 (Part one)

     Roan set off early that morning, when the dew was still resting on any surface that was close to the ground. He sorta regretted it, now that his feet were all cold from his wet black, leather, combat boots. He guessed he should be thankful that his socks weren't wet instead of complaining to himself.

     With the map, it only took him an hour to make it out of the oak and birch forest where he collected wood. The article had been very useful unlike he had thought, besides with civilization. Apparently there were Villages that had Natives that would trade items with him. He didn't know if that was better or not. The article had said the Natives, depending on their location, might talk in a different language than him. Which he found weird. Especially since he learned that some of them 'chirped'. It got really weird when he learned that they could connect to him if he was kind enough to them, but other than that, they would ignore him until he traded with them.

     Roan's only hope of finding someone was to find Players. These Players were just like him, roaming around and trying to make the best of the situation. After meeting these Players he could 'Friend Them' in which he could see them on his map and listen to them through the 'game system' even if they were a world away. The article said it would be very rare if they became that close of friends though, with the statistics saying many kept in touch, but went separate ways. When he had read this all he could think was, shall I forever live in loneliness. 

     While he had been in the woods early that morning, the article taught him that if he 'punched' a tree consistently, it would fall over and give him supplies. So far, he had twelve logs, fourteen sticks, and five leaves. Roan didn't know what the leaves did, but the article said that they were great for creating camouflage, making more trees, and useful for compost when making a garden. Unfortunately, he'd have to figure out how to make a compost bin before doing that.

     Weird thing about this all was that the items didn't lay on the ground like normal. They hovered an inch or so off the ground in mini versions of what it was and he just had to walk near it for it to pop in his 'Inventory'. Which is why he already had three seeds. Roan guessed it was useful that he didn't have to bend down and try to figure out how to put it in his inventory.

     Roan pulled himself onto the top of the cliff by holding onto the thick root of a tree. He got to his feet and looked at the land before him. The sun was just peaking over the hill far in the distance, it's yellow glow shining across the field of what looked like hay. Maybe it was wheat. Either way, it was truly beautiful how it moved in the soft wind. With the swirling colors, it reminded Roan of a golden sea. 

     Roan sat down, not bothering the wet cold of the grass seeping through his black combat pants. It was a relief to just sit down. He tapped the map in his first box of the five. With the map in his hands at full scale he was able to calculate how far he had traveled so far. Fifteen miles.

     Roan let out a deep sigh. Maybe he better rest for a while. He deselected the map by touching the air in front of him and his map disappeared. His shoulders were slumped as he looked at the sunrise in front of him. Hope seemed lost. Yes, he was learning more about this way of life and how it worked, but he wanted to know what he was doing here. And most of all, he wanted to see another person.

     Looking across the swaying field, he wasn't sure if that was even possible. The field was so big that it could probably fill thousands of people in it. Maybe a million or two. With it empty of any human life, it felt unlikely that he would meet anyone.

     Roan reached his hand up to the three lines in his left top corner. He guessed he better rest up, but not waste his time. He clicked on 'Crafting', another drop menu of options appearing within his drop menu. Wooden Plank was the only thing that popped up below the search bar. He clicked on it and it showed exactly how much he would get if he used one log or all of them along with a Recipe inside of a box that was evenly cut into sixteen squares. He didn't know what else he'd use the logs for and he could always get more, so he clicked all and it gave him a total of twenty four wooden planks. Roan looked at the pile in his inventory with shock. It doubled? Awesome!