A Week Later

Roger's sword shaved off more wood from the tip of the stick.

He pulled it up to his face to admire the point, having spent the better part of an hour getting it to be sharp enough to puncture skin.

'This is getting easier, but I'm also being too meticulous now.'

It was around the hundredth such spike he had made.

At first, he had made them quickly, spending only enough time to make them dangerous should someone fall on them.

Over time, however, he found himself trying to make them better. Longer, sharper, sturdier. Whatever had to be done to make them better at their assigned task; killing things.

Satisfied that his work was finished, at least for now, he stood up from his makeshift chair. He had made it three days ago, collecting a pile of dirt and then placing a thin sheet of wood on top. He then upgraded it placing some thick sticks into the ground behind it, serving as a backrest.

It wasn't very fancy, but it beat sitting on mud.

Walking to the edge of the clearing, Roger carefully slid down the side of a shallow pit. It had been dug around the entire glade, stopping just along the edge of the trees.

It had been Lila's idea. She thought it could help slow attackers down, especially if they came in larger numbers.

Turning around to face the central campfire, Roger shoved the flat end of the spike into the soil, allowing the point to stick out.

'There, that should do it.'

Wiping his hands together to clean them of the dirt and splinters, he climbed back on top of the pit's lip and surveyed his work.

Around the entire clearing were hundreds of similar spikes, all pointing outwards. It was a beautiful fortification, serving as the first line of defense against any more attackers.

'Hopefully this time we are better prepared.'

Roger shuddered as he remembered the last time he and Lila had to fight off predators.

It had been the night after their first training, a week ago, when a feral beast's roar woke him up.

What then followed was a vicious fight between himself, Lila, and what she later identified as a pack of mutated wolves. 

They had four legs, and the front ones had long spikes sticking out of them. Similar spikes dotted their canine bodies, some being as long as a foot. 

The wolves would try to throw themselves around as weapons, hoping to impale their targets with their bodies.

They succeed on more than one occasion.

Once the duo managed to fight them off, they spent the next day doing everything they could to keep their wounds clean and uninfected. 

Lila, through her teachings, knew that cauterizing the wounds could help do that.

When Roger pushed his punctured thigh onto the scorching stone he thought he had done and gone to hell.

Following that terrible day, both of them had put all their efforts into fortifying their camp so they could hopefully sleep more easily.

It had mixed results.

The first night a beast had attacked they were lucky. It had been a mix between a mole and a bear, and had managed to fall on some of the few spikes they already had laid out. 

They had put it out of its misery.

The second time, more of the spiked wolves attacked, and they were smart enough to avoid their defenses. No more wounds were sustained in the fight, but Lila had almost managed to set the forest on fire. 

She had used her artifact's ability to fire lightning bolts, but missed, striking a tree instead. It was quickly set ablaze and burned for hours.

Roger managed to contain the spread by clearing all the leaves around the old oak, which was thankfully a semi-secluded plant in the first place.

"Finished the spikes?"

Lila's voice broke him out of his thoughts. She was walking towards him while wearing a new set of brown furs in the shape of a dress.

She had made it by skinning some of the wolves, and it seemed to prove more comfortable for her than the cloth Roger preferred. It also complimented her features well, a fact he had kept to himself.

'Who would've thought Ms. Princess was a fan of animal skin clothing?'

"Yeah, just placed the last one. I was thinking that I'd try to practice my swordsmanship for a short while and then work on gathering more stones for my farm."

Roger had been spending every spare moment he had trying to build a fence around it after some rabbits tried to dig up his seeds.

Fortunately, Lila had scared them off, but the fury he felt at almost losing his precious plants transcended reason.

He wanted to make sure nothing like that could ever happen again.

Lila rolled her eyes.

"Still upset about the little bunnies?"

Her tone was mocking, but Roger knew it wasn't malicious. It was just how she was.

He cringed, shaking his head with emphasis.

"I've told you before, don't call them that. It makes them sound cute and innocent. Those… things… are the most evil and cruel monsters to exist!"

Lila raised an eyebrow.

"Uhuh. Well, once you're done worrying about them, go get your lunch. I cooked up the last few good parts of the bear, but it'll be our last portion. Too bad the System didn't decide a refrigerator was a necessity alongside the other things it gave you."

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes.

"Are you ever going to stop going on about missing all the luxuries your family could afford?"

Lila swished her hair and looked away.

"It isn't my fault you couldn't afford one. Maybe if you had worked harder you would have experienced the joy that is modern appliances."

A grin split his face.

"I bet I could afford one if I managed to kidnap you and sell you back to the government. Noble women like you probably have a large ransom."

She scoffed and leveled her hand towards him. Her pointer finger was stuck around out, and her thumb was straight up, but the rest of her fingers were tucked, creating the impression of a gun.

Lila made a pew sound with her mouth before lifting the gun towards the sky.

It was an inside joke of theirs that she would pretend to shoot him whenever he mentioned her being a noble, even if it was true.

Roger had no idea why she began to react in that way, but he found it cute, so he never complained.

He did find the action strange, which he had told her, only for her to say it wasn't meant to be comforting, leaving Roger with more questions than answers.

Put in the situation again, all he did was shake his head and think a single word.

'Women…'

Walking past her, which prompted her to follow, he went to the fire to find two familiar pieces of wood with a small pile of cooked meat on each.

The food was brown with just a tinge of pink in the center, tasty juices flowing onto the makeshift plates.

Roger licked his lips as he sat grabbed his meal and took it his seat.

Lila did the same, moving to sit in her own chair, which was a piece of wood on the ground.

She had complained when Roger made his mighty throne, and now used the wood in protest.

Before digging in, he waited for her to get comfortable, and remained silent as she closed her eyes and bowed her head.

For some reason, after finding out her element was Omega-rank, she had begun to pray to the shattered God of Storms, saying it felt right to do so.

Roger thought it was all a big steaming pile of bullshit, but she never wanted to hear that.

Once she finished, he greedily ate his fill, each thin slice tasting better than the last.

'She could pray for a thousand years, if it means cooking more food like this then I'll happily wait!'

Her cooking was the biggest evidence Roger had for the gods still being alive, if only to constantly bless her culinary skills. 

Strangely, he also found himself occasionally drawn to prayer, but he always denied the call. He knew it wasn't something required, and didn't trust the alien feeling.

'It's probably the System doing things to my head. Some kind of downside to having an Archonic Legacy.'

He had done a lot of thinking on his legacy in the past week, and had decided he would try and progress with it, but only at a pace that wouldn't risk his life.

Roger might have sworn to get revenge, but it wasn't worth getting it sooner at the cost of his life.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he patiently waited for Lila to finish her own meal, knowing it always took her longer to eat.

'I'd bet it's why she is so thin.'

He only had to wait a few minutes before she swallowed the last morsel, but it still felt like hours.

Turning to him once she finished, she smiled to stall for time, enjoying his impatience, before finally speaking.

"So, I had an idea for something we could do today now that the spikes are finished. We should go explore further into the forest."