6 Grinding

After about an hour or so Dimitri had taken the most essential parts, sadly we couldn't take everything since we had no bags or way to store the meat good.

"We've been here too long let's keep going, all this blood will attract more beasts some maybe stronger than a boar." I said

Dimitri approaches me and tried to hand me back my knife "here, thanks you it's a nice knife" he said

I shook my head "keep it you'll need it when we fight" I said.

He looked me in the eyes and nodded after a couple of seconds. He didn't say anything but his bid was more than enough, he was a man of few words, but was honest and straightforward which was my favorite type of people.

I turned around and we continued on out way towards the town.

After a couple more hours we finally noticed the sun start to go down so I decided we weren't gonna make it today.

"Let's look for a place to stay the night we won't make it." I said while looking around for a clearing or at least a small break in the trees.

"No way I'm not sleeping outside, what if there's more beasts." Said asshole while looking around frantically. The rest of the group aside from Dimitri also looked uncomfortable but they didn't say anything, I don't know if it was out of fear or what.

"I know I also don't like it but it's better than walking in the pitch black. I don't know if you've ever been camping but once that sun goes down you'll lose all sight and it'll be nothing but darkness. We should take advantage of the last hours of sunlight to get a fire going and make simple bedding."

"I've never been camping" said Ace.

"Me neither" said Ana.

"I have" said Astrid barely audible enough for us to hear.

"So have I" said Lucy "I agree with Carlos right now is the best time to look for some dry fire wood and a small clearing, I saw a little break in the trees a couple of minutes ago we can backtrack a little and while we set up camp I can start preparing the food." She said

'That's the most I've heard from anybody aside from me, finally someone else is helping out.'

I looked at her "sounds like you've done this a lot mind taking over and instructing everyone on what to do?" I said.

"Yes I'm from Denver and I go camping a lot with friends and family. Ummm well I think you Dimitri and Jake should go get fire wood and Ana, Ace and Astrid can start clearing the area and getting leaves as bedding" she said a little nervously.

"Well you guys heard her let's get going." I said while we walked off towards where she was talking about.

It was only a purple of minutes of back tracking and going a little off to the left of us. It really was just a small break in the trees they were spaced away from each other just enough to give us a nice little radius of around 20ft.

We quickly got to work, Dimitri and I walking of indifferent directions to get fore wood and the rest of the group doing their own thing.

'Status'

Strength: 9

Agility: 8

Vitality: 7

Intelligence : 7

Endurance: 8

remaining DP: 2

'So a boar is worth two points huh, increase one strength and one agility.'

'Ding'

Strength: 10

Agility: 9

Vitality: 7

Intelligence : 7

Endurance: 8

remaining DP: 0

"Fuuuck!" I growled, the pain although substantially less than the first time was still a bitch. I felt the strength well up inside me, looks like hitting the ten mark didn't do anything other than increasing. I felt lighter and stronger, I felt good, really fucking good. I started to get excited thinking about the possibilities and the future.

30 minutes later and hands full of branches i headed back to camp to see how the rest of the group were doing. Walking closer I saw everyone there already talking around a campfire already lit.

"Nice you guys managed to start a fire." I said with a smile.

"All thanks to Lucy she's really good at this" said Ana.

"Good job we'll need to strengthen you up first you're definitely a survivor" I said.

"Thanks, the meat is almost ready to cook I found some plants that resemble those on earth and they seem to be edible so I'm seasoning it with that." She said while rubbing some green plant on the meat.

"Ok then just don't put on everything that way we can check if it's good or not." I said a little worried about eating something I didn't know.

"Yeah I'm not eating that you don't know where it's been. Also I'm thirsty did anybody see a stream or anything?" Said asshole

"Yeah we need water we've been walking all day." Said Ana.

Crack.

I jumped to my feet and turned to face the sound of the cracking branches only to see Dimitri with a huge grin on his face.

"Fuck you scared the shit out of me dude where were you?" I said while relaxing.

"I found a stream! It's small but the water is crystal clear, also I killed this weird frog with a horn on it and got a DP." He said excitedly.

"good shit, ummm Ace stay here with Astrid and Ana. Lucy, ass...Jake and I will go to the stream and get water" I said. Oops I almost said that aloud haha.

"Wait why do I have to go, I think I should stay here and take care of the cam you know. Ace is a noodle what could he possibly do." Asshole said panicking. 'Looks like he's scared to go out.'

"Fuck you!" Yelled Ace

"You're coming with us and that's final, so let's go, Lucy come on." I said while turning to Lucy who got up to follow us.

'I'm gonna look for small beast for Lucy to kill so she can get stronger. As for why I brought asshole, it's because I don't trust him alone with Astrid I'd rather keep him close to me.

We walked in the direction that Dimitri cane from for about 15 minutes before we heard a small noice off water running. Once we walked a little more we finally reached a small stream that just like Dimitri said, was clear as if there was nothing there. I've never seen water this clear in my whole life, I guess that no pollution for you.

"Umm don't t drink it like that even if it looks clean we gotta boil it first. But we don't have anything to boil it with so we're gonna have to do a makeshift water purifier. Help me out Carlos." She said while she started to lol around.

"What you gonna do there." I asked curiously, I knew a couple of ways to clean water. The safest one being to boil it but with nothing to hold the water and be able to boil it that wasn't and option.

"I need anything in cylindrical shape, I'm gonna do a bush filter. I need charcoal sand and some pebbles.

"Where the fuck are we gonna get charcoal here" said asshole in his asshole tone.

"Look for a tree that's been struck by lighting" she said a little dejectedly knowing how small the chances of finding one was.

"I'll go back to the camp and get some of the burn wood from the campfire I don't know if it'll be enough but it's worth a try." Said Dimitri while he started to walk away.

"Come on Lucy let's look for something to use as the cylinder."I stretched my hand to her and she took it to get up.

"What about me?" Said asshole.

"Gather some sand and pebbles we'll be back in a bit don't wander off." I said as Lucy and I walked down the stream.

The walk was silent I was looking around bored looking for anything we could use but to no avail. I looked at Lucy, she was very pretty and the way she looked out seriously was super cute. She saw me staring at her so she she looked at me "what you fell for me or what" she said mischievously.

"Maybe I did" I replied with a smile at which she blushed a little and turned to face ahead.

"Aren't you a flirt, you tell this to every pretty girl you meet?" She said playfully.

"Nope just you so far. I only speak what I believe is true, I don't like lying or not saying my mind." I said

"Wow thats very straightforward of you, haha"she said. Her smile was beautiful and gave me a refreshing feeling.

"You have a beautiful smile" I said without thinking much. 'Oh shit maybe a little too forward'

She blushed and looked down "thank you" she whispered.

'So cuuuuute!!!'

"Haha sorry that was too forward of me but it's the truth... anyways look" I said after I looked to my left on the other side of the stream.

She looked and was confused "what am I looking at?" She said then turned to me.

"We're fucking lucky. That right there is a gourd and in many cultures they use those as bottles to store water or alcohol" I said while taking her hand and rushing across the stream, I was ecstatic.

"Wait! Hahah we're gonna get wet stop" she laughed while following me, her hand was super soft and felt very comfortable holding o didn't want to let go. But alas nothing good lasts forever.

There next to the gourd tree was a little rat, well little was an understatement. It was huge for a rat being 1 foot tall and long with a pair saber like tooth of about 5 inches long and sharp.

It had noticed us and it poised ready to strike, Lucy got behind me and I pulled out my kunai in a forward handle with the blade pointing to the sky. "Lucy back away slowly I'm gonna try to get it alive so you can kill it." 'Easier said than done. Don't show off.'

I walked forward steadily mind ready for any attack. Since Dimitri was able to beat an animal with my skills I should be able to too.

The rat jumped at me with incredible speed but thanks to my increase in agility I was able to detect its trajectory. I side stepped, turned my body a little and slashed its stomach. Blood started flowing and the rat cried as it landed but I gave it no chance. Throwing myself on top of it soon after with my knees pinning it down, the rat struggled to no avail.

"Lucy hurry come finish it before it drowns! I yelled.

She hurried over taking the knife from my hand and stabbing it on the skull making a gross sound while blood spurted out drenching both her and I in it.

When the rat stopped squirming after having its head stabbed I stood up slowly and took the knife from her shaking hands. I held them tenderly and talked softly "its ok, you had to do that, now think about how you want to spend your point think status and it'll appear showing you your stats, if you're ok with it tell me your stats and maybe I can help you choose where to put it but ultimately it's up to you."

She was quiet for a bit but not out of shock but concentration. Looks like she's tougher than she looks, most likely deciding where to put her points.

'Ding'

'Lucy Thompson would like to share her stats with you. Accept or decline please.'

Oh that's pretty cool I didn't know that was possible. 'Accept'

Lucy Thompson

Strength: 6

Agility: 6

Vitality: 7

Intelligence : 9

Endurance: 6

remaining DP: 1

'Wow that's a really high intelligence'

"You're super smart aren't you? Haha well I don't think it's important to get it to ten so how about we increase your agility. Or if you know how to fight and are comfortable increase your strength."

"Just a little, being a nurse takes a lot of memorizing and studying. But no I don't know anything about fighting so maybe I'll go agility that way I can always escape in case of an emergency." She said.

I squeezed her hand a little harder "ok just think about increasing agility, it's gonna hurt a lot but I'm here just squeeze as hard as you need to." I said

She took a deep breath and then she closed her eyes.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh" she yelled extremely loud and almost crushed my hands with how strong she gripped. Ok maybe not crushed but it still hurt, 6 strength my ass.

After a couple of seconds she stopped and took a couple of hard breaths.

"Ok it's done, gosh that hurts a lot." She said weakly.

"Tell me about, now come on I would like to give you more time but night is almost here." I said as I regrettably let go of her soft hands and walked towards the gourd tree.

On the ground we're a couple of pear shaped gourds although they were big about one foot tall and 8 inches thick. I took one of the dry ones which if I remember correctly from the video I saw a while ago is the one I needed. I took my knife and cut the top part to see the inside had rotted.

"Cough... that stinks but perfect get 5 more of these we'll go back to asshole and clean them out there." I said

"Asshole? Hahaha you're funny but you're right. Let's go then this should do." She said with that beautiful smile of hers.

When we made it back to asshole Dimitri was already there with some pieces of burnt wood.

"What's that you're holding?" He asked

"Gourds were gonna make them into bottles although we're missing beeswax in order to fully seal them so it's just for now." I said while dropping the gourds.

"Carlos, cut the bottom part please" she smiled at me.

I did as told and cut the bottom part then handed it to her. She grabbed the charcoal as put that in first, the she put in the sand and once it was almost full she put in the pebbles.

"Ass....Jake can you please give me a piece of your suit? If it's cotton it'll work perfectly." She said. 'Haha haha she almost said it too.

"No! Do you know what this suit is worth? It's worth more than you make in a month hell no" he yelled exasperated.

"Sigh... give her the piece she wants or I'll cut it off myself not take it off and give it to me" I said starting to lose my patience with this self centered ass.

He gritted his teeth hard and reluctantly gave in. "Fine" he said

I took his suit and cut of a small piece which I then handed with full smiles to Lucy.

She tied the cloth to the tip of the gourd and ran some water through. At first the water came out a little brown but after a couple of passes it came out clear.

"Now to clean these gourds, grab some sticks and scrape the insides. After put some pebbles with a little bit of water and shake it around. Repeat that process a couple of times." I said.

30 minutes later we were all set with 6 gourds full of purified water, just in time too because the sun was nearly down. We walked back to camp, the gourds doing way better than I expected holding the water without so much as a drop escaping.

When we got back to camp everyone was in a much better mood at seeing us.

"I was starting to get worried" said Ana as she walked to Lucy to help her with one of the gourds.

"Gourds! Nice these are perfect, who thought of using them?" She said impressed.

"Carlos did! I didn't even know these things existed" said Lucy excited

"Wow city boy you know your stuff" she said

"Haha nah it's only cause I saw a certain Chinese movie as a kid and was very interested in the gourds." I said

"Well the food is ready so let's eat now" said Ace hungrily staring at the meat skewers by the fire.

We all sat around the fire as the last rays of sun hit the forest. We ate in silence, I turned to Lucy sitting in my left "meat's really good" I said.

"Thank you but thank Ana who cooked it." She said with a smile.

"Thank you Ana" I said and everyone followed suit.

After about 10 minutes everyone was just about done eating.

"Listen up guys and girls, we need to set up a watch system, I suggest two people every 2 hours, we don't know how long the nights are so I think that's the best option." I said after some thinking.

"That's not fair only you and Dimitri can fight so how are we supposed to do anything." Said asshole. 'Of course he has a problem.'

"That's why it's a called a watch system smartass, no one expects you to fight just keep watch and wake us up when you see something." Said Ace. 'Well said my friend'

"How about this then, Carlos and I won't be a pair and him and I will try to be with everyone." Said Dimitri

'Hmmmm I won't sleep much but at the same time I doubt I can just sleep while trusting my life to asshole. "Ok sounds good, if you don't mind let me sleep the first two hours, Dimitri and asshole take first shift." I said

We had a discussion and in the end we decided that shifts will go like this until it's sunligh.

Dimitri & asshole

Carlos & Lucy

Dimitri & Ana

Carlos & Astrid

Dimitri & Ace

So I had nothing to do now but find my leaf bed and close my eyes. I must of been super tired because before I knew it I was out. So much for not going to sleep.