Progress

Marcus ran over a collection of ideas he had before any of them had arrived here. The group shared some nuts and berries for breakfast. Marya agreed with most of them and now they were already working on one. James had a lot of survival coins from doing better than the others in learning the basics from Marya.

Marcus didn't reveal his true stats but his beat James' amount by a landslide. They used James' coins to plant more rows of pea plants where Marcus was now digging out the final tenth row. That would bring it to hopefully 100 pea plants and if each plant had five pods with at least five peas in each pod... they could reap a harvest of roughly 500 pods or 2500 peas if they grew without any major problems.

Although it sounded like a large number, Marcus knew this would only give them five meals each and you couldn't just eat peas on their own. At least it would be something healthy to add to their diet so maybe they could ration them and spread them out over a longer period of time.

It would also be wiser to dry some peas to be seeds for the next harvest. Then they wouldn't need to buy any from the shop. The only reason Marcus didn't buy more seeds with his survival coins was because he wanted to save them for something more beneficial to the group...

They all went to the water spring to drink and Marya proposed another idea. It was to build a reservoir in case the spring dried up or froze over. She also mentioned having a backup water supply wouldn't hurt. To combat this task, Marcus took James and Sam with him while Marya got to work on the reservoir with Lana.

Marcus took his team to the waterfall as this was where he pictured his idea for a backup. He took out the water filter and explained that they would need to construct pipes or tubes.

"Will these do?" James shouted from behind the side of the cliff that was responsible for the waterfall.

Sam gazed up at the mountains rising high above them behind the waterfall. 'They must be the source of the river and this waterfall.' Marcus was elated to witness James' discovery. How had he not noticed it before? Bamboo!

Now Marcus had to yet again question what part of the world they were in. Bamboo came from every continent except Europe and Antarctica. That hadn't stopped people growing bamboo in Europe though. A lot of the wild plants he'd eaten could be found in Europe and Asia too.

If penguins showed up, Marcus might just believe the collapse was a literal collapse where all the continents imploded into one. Although the idea had been a joke, Marcus felt uneasy about it. The world had once been the one and only continent of Pangea.

Could something disastrous have made that become the new reality? Could a couple hundred years of sleep be enough to globalise nearly every species of plant and animal? Well, there weren't any elephants showing up so far... Climates must still play a big part in where certain species could live. There must still be icecaps and perhaps deserts and plains and rainforests etc. in other parts of the world.

Marcus patted James on the back to show his comradery before praising him for his efforts. 'This is what leaders do right?' He wandered. James cringed at Marcus' awkwardness but welcomed it anyway.

They used their knives to cut down some bamboo tubes and carried them over to the water fall. It was there that they spent the next few hours assembling pipes which led to Marcus' filter.

Below the filter, Marcus laid his largest clay pot that water now dripped into. "We can switch it out with other pots when it gets full but hopefully we can put together something bigger to hold it all," Marcus stated while he stared at the largest bamboo pipe that sealed the edges of the plastic bottle in order to prevent it from overflowing. The pressure shouldn't be too high but Marcus moulded clay around the edges just in case like they had with every bamboo pipe to connect them up.

The process had taken them all day so halfway through they stopped to eat some fish which Sam clay baked. All of Marcus' ideas up until everyone else arrived had mostly stemmed from the survival guide as well as memories that somehow stimulated thoughts in his sub-conscious. However, it seemed that he wasn't the only one to learn and evolve as Sam showed proof that she was too.

Marcus opened up the system and read through all the new skills he had unlocked since moving to the valley:

*SKILLS*

Cooking (level 3) - You have mastered the basics and can complete a few intermediate recipes.

Fishing (level 2) - Swift as the coursing wind... just needs more accuracy...

Marcus spluttered after reading the description for fishing. Was the system... making fun of him? 'No. I'm sure it's just a glitch.'

Construction (level 4) - You can put together a weather proof hut. Enough to keep you safe from the elements.

Swimming (level 3) - Capable but no lifeguard.

Marcus glared intently at the system who he decided was definitely showing signs of sarcasm. "Listen here system. I don't like your passive aggressive attitude..."

"What was that?" Asked James.

"Nothing at all! Nothing at all..." James gulped at the sight of Marcus grinding his teeth menacingly. Marcus was very mistrustful of the system. Trying to imagine how it worked hurt his brain. Maybe it was brain chip implants.

The fact that someone had incorporated slightly sassy responses into the program angered him. That they didn't take his life completely seriously angered him.

A lot of his other skills had increased in level like his fire lighting or 'ignite' skill as the system liked to call it was now level 6 and his climbing skill was level 7. It had stayed at that level for an entire week though now. Marcus seemed comfortable traversing nearly all of the valley's terrain because of it. Did he need to ascend the mountains to level it up further?

There were some more skills as well:

Hiking (level 3) - Your fitness levels are above average.

Knife work (level 2) - some ability in carving and slicing.

Foraging (level 6) - Able to find food in a variety of locations.

There were more but Marcus had already scanned through most of them. It was then that he got a new message from the system. 'Sufficient number of skills has been reached. Section skill tree has now been unlocked!' A larger blue screen materialised in front of that one with blank circles branching off to other circles. Some networks had a circle with a skill in the middle. Marcus recognised them as previously unlocked skills.

'New skill classes revealed. You have learned twenty seven common grade skills. Tactical grade and Enhancer grade skills are now available.' Marcus didn't know what any of this meant but maybe this was an opportunity he could capitalise on.

'Would you like to invest your skill points into a new skill?' Marcus chose 'yes' since he didn't really know what the benefits of saving them up would be yet.

'One of your skills is at level 10 meaning it has reached basic mastery. Allocating 2 skill points.'

'Ten of your skills have attained the level of 5 or above. Allocating 10 skill points.'

'No skills have reached level 25 or above. The rest are too low to allocate points. Total skill points is 12.' The system offered Marcus three options:

A. Invest 1 skill point to learn a new common skill.

B. Invest 5 skill points to learn a new tactical skill.

C. Invest 10 skill points to learn a new enhancer skill.

Marcus was stumped. He wanted to see how tactical AND enhancer skills were different to common skills but he could only learn one enhancer or two tactical skills. Now Marcus saw the advantages of saving up points so he only invested 5 into a single tactical skill. 'I'll save up for the enhancer skill in the future.'

'New skill of tactical grade unlocked! Tap to view description.' Marcus complied with the message and tapped the screen.

Send aid (level 1) - Drops a small package containing plasters/bandaids.

Marya's reservoir was complete and already half full. She'd siphoned the water into a clay bath tub she'd moulded with Lana against the cave wall. Adding broken up termite hill had created a half adobe mix so the clay dried much faster and Marya had covered the top with a basket like lid she weaved to keep rats and other animals drinking it and spreading disease. The main rock sink reservoir was too high for most creatures and anything tall enough was too big to enter. Unless of course, you were bipedal.

Dinner was exceptional for Marcus as they ate venison (deer) hunted by Marya which was the first proper meat Marcus had consumed in centuries. It brought tears streaming down his face and tasted so much more tender than the duck poultry.

A smile crept over his face. Not just for the meat but also for his new skill. He had tried it as soon as he had read the description earlier and a package with a parachute fell from the sky where inside, plasters could be found. The skill had a 24hr cool down timer but it would still be useful in emergencies.