Logging Incident
Roger admired the axe head as the sun reflected off of it. The tree's canopy was just thin enough for the brilliant rays to pass through, causing him to marvel at the beauty.
'I wish the sun shined this much back home.'
Roger's curiosity mostly stemmed from the series of metal rings around Earth, coupled with the Dyson Sphere absorbing most of the sun's energy. It was a cause for celebration when the natural light did leak past.
His adopted family had often held outside festivities on such days.
A second later the sharp edge bit into the tree's bark, cutting a deep furrow into it. Splinters of wood were sent flying, adding to the heap of detritus covering the forest floor.
Another strike followed the first, then a third. The deadly weapon came again and again, cleaving an ever-increasing gap into the small tree.
Roger had chosen it for its size, being only three meters tall, allowing him to feasibly harvest the logs and transport them to the camp.
A few more swings struck true, leaving the tree standing only by the grace of the gods.
Roger wiped the sweat off his brow as he looked at his work with pride, enjoying every minute he spent using his new muscles.
'Maybe this whole System thing isn't so bad after all.'
He swung his axe over his shoulder and flexed his bicep to prove the point, grinning at the small bulge that appeared.
'Not bad at all.'
He was in a uniquely good mood after his conversation with Lila. Her new attitude towards him was unprecedented, but welcome nonetheless.
'If all I had to do was almost get myself killed for her to talk to me more then I would've thrown myself in the fire that first evening.'
Although he thought those words, he knew it wouldn't be so simple in reality. He liked having another person around, sure, but not enough to harm himself. She was just a way for him to gather information and stave off the boredom and isolation he had grown accustomed to in the prison.
No matter how long he had endured it, the human body simply wasn't built for extended periods of loneliness, a fact the warden had exploited.
Roger shivered at the memories, quickly casting them out of his mind.
'Not going to let the past ruin my good mood today.'
He hadn't even tried to scare off the woodland critters who had been watching him with curiosity. At least, he hadn't tried much.
'A few thrown branches is nothing. I should be proud of myself for showing such emotional maturity. I should be turning sixteen soon, so it's about time!'
He didn't actually know when his birthday was, so he had chosen one when he was adopted. His adoption day.
After his adopted family let the government take him to prison, he moved it to the day after his adoption day. It helped make it less painful to experience.
Not that his birthday was an uplifting affair now, but it was still better to leave those wounds away from a supposedly joyous occasion.
He heaved his axe once more and gave a final strike, causing the tree to visibly shake. With a loud groan, it began to fall perpendicular to the contented youth.
It hit the ground and bounced, dozens of branches snapping on impact. Leaves and dirt were sent in all directions, causing a small dust cloud to form at the point of collision.
Roger smirked at the fruit of his labor, feeling stronger than he ever had before. He could even whistle a jaunty tune. If he knew any jaunty tunes, that is.
As he approached the crown of the tree, he heard a small whining sound emanating from the pile of leaves. It grew louder with time, eventually filling the local area with the noise. Roger ignored the urge to cover his ears, instead deciding to address the problem.
'Gods almighty can this thing pipe down?'
Moving closer to the point of origin, he used his axe to move some of the twigs to the side and saw one of those familiar forest creatures stuck under a sizable branch.
It was bleeding from a wound on its chest, and its bushy brown tail was bent at an awkward angle.
His morality warred with his lust for vengeance for a few moments before his desires won out.
'Lila has been doing all the hunting, hasn't she? I might as well pitch in now that the opportunity presents itself…'
With a malicious grin on his lips, he raised his axe and brought it down, neatly severing the critter's head.
The System didn't announce his kill, but he still felt satisfied with it.
'Maybe next time those beasts will think twice before selling me out to an apex predator!'
Giving the action no more thought, he set to work cleaning the top of the tree. He hacked off all the small appendages, leaving only the trunk. He then organized the sticks by size, deciding to take the small ones for kindling and the big ones for some other project in the future.
'No telling what use wood can be in this place. Maybe I could make a small fence for my garden?'
Even after almost killing him through mana exhaustion, he still looked at his plants fondly. They would feed them eventually, even if he needed to reach Beta rank before he could properly cultivate them.
'There is also no telling what I can use the fruits for! Sure we could just eat them, but I bet with some research I could find other ways to harness their magical energy. I think I remember an inmate once talking about ancient witchcraft and alchemy, how they would crush ingredients into curses and spells.'
At the time, Roger had waved it off as prison mania, a common enough sickness, but now he was in a world where magic, artifacts, and ancient ruins seemed to be everywhere.
There was no telling what was possible now.
Once he cleaned the top of the tree, he rolled the trunk a little ways away before beginning to chop it into smaller logs. He hoped that he could simply roll the pieces back to camp, where he could then fashion them into whatever defenses he and Lila thought useful.
'I wonder if I could dig a spike pit? That sounds cool. I bet Terrance would go crazy if he had the chance to make old defenses like that.'
He smiled as he remembered the eccentric man.
If he could have taken some inmates with him to Avar, Terrance would have definitely been one of them, if for no other reason than his survival knowledge.
'I hope he is doing okay back on Earth.'
He snuffed the thought out as fast as it came, shaking his head to rid himself of it.
Roger might have accepted some amount of hope as useful in his situation, but something as far-fetched as rescuing other prisoners at this stage of his life was doing nothing but asking for trouble.
Refocusing on his task, he cut the trunk into five semi-equal segments, believing he could roll them all.
Once he finished, he decided to rest for a few minutes, placing his axe against the logs before sitting down and leaning on them himself.
He looked up into the clear blue sky and enjoyed the sun on his face.
'That's it Roger, focus on the good things. Not the hopeless desire hidden deep inside. This is surely a healthy choice.'
Roger did not have long to rest and contemplate his decisions before a shadow flew above his head, landing a few feet ahead of him and kicking dirt into the air.
The moment he saw movement above him he rose to his feet, one hand grabbed the axe while the other drew his sword with a wing. He assumed an awkward stance, keeping the sword in front while he lifted his axe to strike down if someone leaped out at him.
The dust slowly cleared, and Roger's eyes widened as he recognized what the beast was.
'You have got to be kidding me.'
A beast roughly the size of a large wolf stood in front of him, spinning around viciously before it locked eyes with Roger.
It seemed to have a long brown body covered in fur, with four legs ending in sharp claws. Two beady black eyes rested on a mousey face with long pointed teeth just beneath them.
A bushy tail stuck out behind it, flipping through the air with barely concealed fury, an action that seemed a lot cuter on tiny animals.
Roger suddenly had a thought as he recognized the creature as a similar, if not far larger, version of the small critter he had killed just recently.
'Why would such a small creature cry out so loudly in such a dangerous zone unless it had help?'