Clutching the crude, heavy stick, his only defense, Lore pushed through the thick wall of unfamiliar foliage, taking the path downhill. The urgency to find a water source was a searing sensation in his throat, immediately overriding the generalized terror of being naked and alone in an alien forest. His movements were jerky, driven by instinct rather than skill, but underneath the panic, the System was already running a frantic calculation: survival probability, resource analysis, threat assessment. All results pointed to a critical vulnerability.
He had walked for perhaps fifteen strained minutes, his bare feet navigating unseen roots and slick moss, when he heard it, the faint, gentle whisper of flowing water. It was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard, an immediate promise of life. He pushed through a final curtain of wide, dark-green leaves and found salvation: a small, clean-looking creek, about three meters wide, meandering through the forest floor.
Lore dropped to his knees at the bank, his shoulders slumping with profound relief. But the lifetime of anxiety inherited from Lee Jun-Ho flared up, preventing the reckless plunge. 'Never drink still or cloudy water,' a voice in his mind dictated, echoing a forgotten survivalist video. 'Always check for contaminants or upstream hazards.' The water here was clear, flowing swiftly over light-colored stones, and the banks were healthy. He cautiously scooped the water up with his hands, taking slow, deep drinks. It was cool, clean, and immediately revitalizing.
Hydrated, he turned his attention to the second, equally crucial priority: a proper weapon and defense. The heavy stick he held was now just a symbol of his desperation. He needed an edge, literally.
'This is where his compulsive viewing pays off,' Lore thought, analyzing the situation with cold logic. 'He wasted hundreds of hours on "Primitive Technology" channels just to feel prepared for a blackout.' Lore sighed, the sound a low, frustrated growl. "Thank God Lee Jun-Ho watched those survival videos and weapon-making tutorials, even though he was never going to use them in that miserable, safe supermarket life. Let's count our blessings, I guess."
He began the slow, tense search for the right stones. He needed a hard, igneous rock for the axe head and a softer, rounded river stone for the hammer. After another twenty minutes of scavenging the creek bed, he found what he needed: a dark, fine-grained piece of stone that looked like basalt or obsidian, capable of holding a sharp edge, and a smooth, heavy striking stone.
Lore settled down against a massive tree trunk and began the meticulous process of knapping. This required absolute focus, ignoring the incessant chirps, screeches, and snorts of the forest. He struck the dark stone with the hammer stone, aiming for precise, glancing blows to remove flakes. With every successful strike that chipped away a sliver, he felt a corresponding jolt of focused energy. However, the process was brutal. A thin, accidental slice across his thumb bled immediately, mingling his blood with the forest mud.
'Focus,' he commanded himself, wiping the blood on the grass. 'This is how I survive. This is how I gain the original skill.'
After nearly an hour, his hand aching and cramped, he had fashioned a respectable, triangular stone blade, sharp enough to cut and thick enough to withstand impact. He then used a smaller, sharp flake to patiently whittle one end of his heavy branch into a tapered point. Using long, fibrous, tough vines stripped from the dense undergrowth, he tightly lashed the stone head to the branch. The result was a functional Stone Axe/Spear, heavier than he was comfortable with, but undeniably lethal.
[Ding!]
[Skill Learned: Primitive Tool Crafting (Level 1)]
[Skill Learned: Primitive Lashing (Level 1)]
[EXP Gained: 20 (Skill Acquisition)]
[EXP Transferred to Original: Lee Jun-Ho]
The notification was cold, yet deeply satisfying. He had earned his Original a tangible gain.
His next necessity was concealment. Nakedness was an unacceptable liability. He couldn't forge metal, but he could utilize the natural environment. Using the sharp edge of his new tool, Lore began stripping long, pliable pieces of thick bark and harvesting the toughest, largest leaves from the surrounding flora. He then employed his new Lashing skill to weave these materials into a crude, vest-like garment. It was scratchy, uncomfortable, and looked utterly ridiculous, but it broke up his silhouette, offered minor protection against thorns and biting insects, and, most importantly, offered crucial camouflage.
'I look like a fucking homeless jungle savage,' Lore mused, adjusting the scratchy bark on his shoulder, 'but it's better than being exposed flesh.'
He then established a temporary base near the creek, hiding the spot just a few meters into the dense vegetation. He created a small lean-to using large, angled branches and more leaves, ensuring it was subtle and not easily visible from the bank.
With his immediate survival needs addressed, hunger, the last of the four priorities, finally became the dominant sensation.
His eyes scanned the bank. The creek was shallow, clear, and surprisingly full of movement. Small, silvery fish darted beneath the surface, attracted to the calmer pools. But before fish, he needed something solid. Something meaty.
That's when he saw it: a small, brownish-gray creature with long ears, hopping cautiously at the edge of the forest to drink: a rabbit, or the New World's closest equivalent.
Lore crouched low, his Stone Axe/Spear clutched in both hands. The adrenaline began to pump, but the Brave trait remained stubbornly inactive. 'The System doesn't consider a rabbit a mortal threat,' he noted grimly. 'I suppose that's reassuring, but irrelevant.'
He moved with agonizing, almost glacial slowness, recalling the hunting sequences from Jun-Ho's endless videos, move when the target is distracted, aim for the head or spine, rely on speed over power. The moment the rabbit dipped its head to drink, Lore exploded forward.
It was a burst of raw, desperate speed. He swung the heavy stone axe with frantic, untrained force. The blunt, heavy side of the stone connected with the rabbit's head in a sickening, wet thud, silencing its brief, frantic squeak instantly.
Lore stood over the still creature, panting heavily, his heart hammering in his chest. His hands trembled, not with fear, but the residual shock of the violence he had just committed. It was his first kill.
[Ding!]
[EXP Gained: 10 (Small Game Hunt)]
[EXP Transferred to Original: Lee Jun-Ho]
He quickly processed the animal, again guided by the mental tutorials burned into Jun-Ho's memory. He used the sharp edge of the stone axe to skin and butcher the rabbit, working with a ruthless efficiency born purely of necessity.
Next, he turned to the fish. He waded into the shallowest part of the creek, spear in hand. He stood motionless, silent, the chill of the water a sharp contrast to the humid air. He waited five long minutes until a small school of silvery fish drifted into the pool directly in front of him. He stabbed swiftly, his movement barely disturbing the water, pinning a respectable-sized fish against the bottom. He caught another a few minutes later.
Meat and fish secured, the final piece of the survival puzzle was fire. Finding dry, flammable materials in this damp ecosystem was the most complex task yet. He searched the shielded crevices beneath the largest tree roots, eventually finding pockets of dry, powdery tinder and a bundle of small, desiccated twigs. He used the knapping stone and a harder piece of pyrite he found nearby to strike a spark, working relentlessly until a small, fragile flame caught in the tinder. He nursed it slowly, feeding it the smallest twigs, until he had a controlled, small fire.
He carefully placed the fish and rabbit meat on pointed sticks near the heat, watching the fat sizzle and the water begin to evaporate. The smell was heavenly, a primal aroma of survival that transcended his origins.
As the meat cooked, Lore finally allowed himself a moment of rest, sitting cross-legged in his ridiculous bark armor. He was exhausted, sore, and covered in scratches, but he was alive, armed, watered, and about to eat.
'This is what it means to be Level 1,' Lore concluded, looking into the flames. 'Pure, brutal labor. And now, Jun-Ho on Earth is 30 EXP closer to something, and I've earned him two low-level skills.'
He ate the slightly smoky, chewy meat quickly, absorbing the energy. The sun was now fully gone, and the darkness of the canopy was absolute, broken only by the cold, pale glow of the System screen in his mind. He completely extinguished the fire, banked the hot coals for the morning, and slipped into his rudimentary shelter with the stone axe close at hand. He had survived the random spawn point, but the cacophony of monstrous sounds starting in the distance promised that the true test of the New World was only beginning. He had a feeling the next kill would require the 15% strength boost.