The stone age

"Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day! The sun is shining in-"

"James! Shutuuuuuup!" Everyone yelled over his awful morning song.

"Where is that even from? It sounds so familiar it's creepy..." Lana mentioned as she brushed back a loose strand of hair. Her appearance was quite captivating even in the morning.

"I know right!" said James. "Why must you all hate my singing so much?"

"Because it's awful!" Marya growled, frightening everyone. James didn't sing for the rest of the day. Marcus wanted to check out the pea plants which were now climbing up the sticks placed next to each seedling. The pods would start forming soon.

His botanist skill was quite a high level now and it gave him a variety of information like whether they needed more water, sunlight, nutrients, carbon dioxide, increased/decreased temperature etc. Marcus didn't know how he could change the CO2 concentration in the air but it was still valuable information.

Marcus was also aware of plants' emotions. Well, emotions was a stretch but Marcus could see activity in the form of pulses. The activity spiked if he shouted at them and if he touched them too. Marcus tried talking to them and this didn't have a big effect but their responses suggested they were really listening in some way. Like they knew his intent through his speech.

Today, Marcus wanted to complete some quests while Marya taught the others some more of the things Marcus had learnt from the survival guide on his own. He'd mastered all the basics so he could eventually read the intermediate and advanced sections. Like how to purify water with oregon grapes. Something he spotted when he was learning how to craft the water filter.

The last quest he had to complete since he last checked was to craft a stone tool so Marcus gathered some useful looking chunks of flint, hand sized stones and thick branches that he cut into shorter lengths to be potential handles.

Following along with a step-by-step diagram in the handbook, Marcus used a sharp flint and a flat rock to chisel out a slat. He ended up using bamboo as it wouldn't take so long to chisel through and bamboo was relatively strong as a handle.

Even after reaching the other side of the slat, a lot of digging and cleaning out was needed to allow a stone to fit. He had to smash some flint rocks to get a perfectly shaped axe head.

After repeating the process of cleaning the slat out more and trying to wedge the axe head in to fit, Lana came over to see what Marcus was doing. "Need some help?"

Marcus glanced over his shoulder before asking, "do you happen to know what cordage is?" Lana smiled and showed him how to make cord with plants and grass. It was a lot better than wasting the para chord which would be better used when they needed something to hold a lot of weight. It seemed there were some basics Marcus had missed.

To keep the axe head in the slat, he wedged a slit of wood into the side, knocked it into place and snapped of any sticking out the back. He then tied the cordage they made around the base and the handle. Marcus had no idea what counted as a finished tool to the system but it seemed satisfied when they stopped because Marcus received a notification.

'Quest complete - stone age. Distributing 20 survival coins and threads x10.'

Marcus had already used his send aid skill today. He planned on using it as much as possible because he was sure that using it would level it up eventually. Hopefully it would give him better first aid supplies too. Who knows, one day a defibrillator might fall from the sky.

His reward from completing the quest was 10 small reels of thread. Each reel had a different colour thread. If Marcus could make a needle, he could repair tears in clothing or maybe even make simple cloth bags for everyone.

'New quest! Craft a simple cloth sack - 0/1 complete.'

Marcus smiled. A needle wasn't too difficult to make from small rabbit bones. He took to fixing a tear in one of his shirt's sleeves and was pleased to get a response from the system:

'New skill unlocked! Sewing - level 1.'

'Maybe I should learn to weave as well...' Marcus pondered. It applied a similar principle to sewing and was one of the earliest ways to make clothing. It wasn't like Marcus wanted to become a professional weaver and spend the rest of his days weaving away in a dark cave but it would be a useful skill to have. Not to mention, a very easy one to level up just like sewing. He could gain many skill points from them as well.

To at least unlock the skill for now, Marcus stretched some threads accross a piece of bark and tied them at either end. It took him half an hour but soon he had threaded enough para chord in and out of his scrappy bark loom to form a scraggy cloth. Good for washing plates or pots.

The para chord was better for weaving than using the threads both ways as it was thicker so didn't take as long. Marcus wasn't a master but he tied all the loose ends up and called it finished.

'New skill unlocked! Weaving - level 1.'

Inspecting the notification, Marcus noticed someone looking over his shoulder. He uncrossed his legs and stood before turning around and asking, "you're still here?" Lana frowned slightly before responding.

"I already know how to use the system. Plus what you're doing seemed more interesting than them."

"Is that so?" Marcus put his new sewing/weaving kit away and un-wedged the stone hatchet from a nearby tree stump that had formed naturally during a storm. Lana followed after him but had to walk faster to keep up.

"You're not like the others. I don't know what you went through waking up alone but you obviously know more than you let on so show me a trick or two!"

Marcus was taken aback so he stopped walking for a second. Her playful sense made her appear immature at first but she was actually very observant. Not everything was about survival. Wasn't his goal to find people from the start? He realised that this entire time, he'd only been thinking about finding people.

He never thought about what things would be like when he did. Lana was the first to catch him off guard since their arrival. Marcus was scared they weren't who they said they were when in fact the only liar here was him.

Eventually he smiled and said, "you're right."

"What? About what?" Lana demanded but Marcus was already making his way over to the river where everyone was practicing basic survival skills with Marya. She was such a better leader than him. Maybe he didn't need to obsess about becoming their leader. His role was obviously something else for the time being.

"Guys! I have some important information to share." Lana ran over to catch up and see everyone looking expectantly at Marcus. She slipped in next to Marya and Sam.

"I've unlocked a new section to the system and levelled up my stats considerably." Well... they didn't need to know that he lied about them from the start at least. He explained the new area regarding skill points and Marya claimed that in her training to be the guide, she'd only mastered the basics so it was news to her.

Marcus also showed them his send aid skill and the high number of survival coins he'd gathered. Most were surprised that Marcus had grown so quickly and James' respect for him increased so much that he saluted him with vigor.

Everyone had been discussing how Marcus should use the survival coins when a red notification came up.

'Large threat detected. Monster horde class C made up of class D zombie type enemies approaching from all directions.'