[Dreamer] Chapter Four

Not long after, I was standing in some bushes with a spear in hand, eyeing a couple of rather large land birds, specifically, Dodos.

The Dodos were all below five, and each was pretty large, but, I was hesitating.

I had never killed before...

But...I needed meat if I was going to survive here, and a full stomach would drastically increase my chances of survival.

So, I focused, focused on the facts and what I needed to survive.

And before I knew it, I lunged out from the bushes, throwing the spear in hand, which flew across the air and impaled one of the Dodos, surely killing it.

I summoned forth another Spear from my inventory and threw it too, only to end up missing.

Then, they began... waddling?

They waddled at a snail's pace away from me, squeaking and flapping their wings while shaking their bodies...

I never stopped my momentum and with yet another spear I summoned from my inventory, I impaled the second Dodo before charging towards the third, grabbing the spear I threw and missed with, ending the life of the third Dodo.

I took a deep breath and nearly threw up, but managed to hold it in, causing a disgusting aftertaste to fill my mouth and my throat to burn.

-1 HP

Taking deep breaths, I dragged the three Dodos back to my campfire, and while leaning up against a tree, began hacking away at them with the stone axe in my inventory.

I leveled up once again from killing the Dodos and invested the stat point into Foritutde, to make the nights and mornings a little more bearable.

I was down to two spears since the spearhead broke on one of them, but it was replaceable, so I simply used the spear as wood for the campfire after breaking it apart.

The meat, hide, and feathers I had after chopping apart the Dodos were by no means pretty, but it would do for now.

From all the dodos, I had 24 units of raw meat, 36 units of Hide, and about a hundred feathers, which I could probably use for arrows.

It was more than enough hide I needed for the bag, and with the leftover Fiber I had from making some clothes, I could probably make the sleeping bag now.

As usual, I followed the guide and managed to make myself a sleeping bag hours later, and also had the raw meat cooked over the fire while I worked.

I still had hours left before night would arise, so I spent the rest of the day feeding the trikes berries, eventually leading to success!

[Congratulations! You have tamed Baby Triceratops]

To my surprise, the title above its head turned bright green, and it seemed to become completely docile, even going so far as to rub up on me!

Soon the sun came down and night arose, so, I lit the fire and crawled into the sleeping bag, and I actually managed to get a full night's sleep, the baby trike cuddling with me the entire night, keeping me warm when the fire eventually went out.

In the morning, I couldn't help but yawn and groan due to still feeling tired and having the baby trike sleeping on me.

I rolled him off, and when I passed my implant over his body in the process, I was surprised to see yet another holographic screen appear, but instead of my own, this time I was shown its status!

Its level was 23, and I noticed another bar in its status that differed from mine, [Maturation: 8.4%]

It could only be how far it was from completely maturing.

And I realized, if I took care of him until he grew up into an adult, he'd be able to protect me from danger.

I also noticed something called 'Imprinting' in its status as well and It was at '32%.'

Does this mean it saw beginning to see me as its 'Parent' now?

What would happen when it reached 100%?

Deciding to let him sleep, I opened my status and went over to my engram tab, and unlocked basic trapping which unlocked a couple of new crafting recipes.

A Tripwire trap, a pitfall trap, a cage trap, and a couple more that were meant for smaller creatures or for alarming.

I spent the next hours making tripwire traps around the area to alarm me of anyone coming and also set up some basic traps in the forest that should catch some Dodos or anything else their size, and used berries, and a bit of the raw meat I hadn't cooked as bait.

The baby trike spent most of that time following me, and I made sure to feed him berries every now and then.

There was a small pond nearby, and I made sure to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated, the river was another option for water, but it frankly was not worth it.

When I finished with the traps, I unlocked the slingshot engram and made a basic slingshot that can launch stones at a fast speed.

It was surprisingly easy to make, all things considered.

And I also learned something really strange.

Whatever material I put into my inventory, then took back out, would fit the need.

For example, the hide, the hide I got off the Dodos was definitely not enough for the sleeping bag due to their size, yet when I put them in my inventory and pulled them back out, they were larger.

Same with stones, when I made the slingshot and then took out the stones, they were all the same shape, perfect for using them as ammo on the slingshot.

So, the materials that went in, could come out differently, depending on what I needed them for.

And, at the end of the day, I noticed strange pillars of light descending from the sky in the far distance as the sun fell.

I was honestly feeling at home in this pack of Trikes in this empty field, but quickly got homesick as I thought of home and my mom.

That night I hardly slept, and when I awoke in the morning, I had some of the cooked meat and drank some water from the pond, which was surprisingly fresh.

I spent the next hour checking over all my traps, finding that I managed to catch two Dodos, and something called a 'Compsognathus' which seemed to be a small bipedal lizard.

I killed them and harvested them, before resting/fixing the traps and returning to my camp, where the baby trike was waiting for me, like a lonely puppy.

It awkwardly charged me upon seeing me and quickly began jumping on me, wanting attention.

So, I scratched under its chin and fed it some berries I had in my inventory before watching it go over to the campfire and lay down on my sleeping bag, quickly falling asleep.

I huffed in amusement before focusing on the task at hand.

I wanted to tame all the Trikes in the herd, and I was making good progress, having nearly tamed the three other baby trikes and was at about 60% progress with most of the matured Trikes.

I was lucky they were so friendly, they may be herbivores, but they were built like tanks.

Their bodies were tough and extremely muscular, their size and horns made them probably as dangerous as Rhino, and I would not dare test to see how tough their skin was.

However...they definitely had their weaknesses. For example, anything that could definitely outmaneuver them would probably be able to take it down so long as they had the time or power.

Wait...if there are Dinosaurs on this island...does that mean there are...bigger dinosaurs than the Trikes hidden on this island?

I couldn't help but gulp at that thought. Especially knowing some of the larger dinosaurs from memory that could only be described as absolute monsters.

I spent the next hour making myself shoes and hand wraps, before making a few more spears.

I then spent the rest of the day hunting down a few more dodos, for not only their meat and hide but also the exp that I can get from killing them.

At first, I felt disgusted by how easily I was finding it to kill them, but now? I saw it as a simple fact, survival. I needed to kill them to survive, their meat and hide would greatly help me in surviving, so, I killed them.

Little did I know, but this would set me down a very 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 dark path. One that would lead me to become a butcher of men, eater of souls, Grim Reaper to Gods, and most importantly, a 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘰𝘳.