Chapter 10 - "The Hunt - Part One"
Alpha Date Year(002): 315,848 Day: 275/365
Day 17:
"During the day, I spent most of my time cleaning my campsite and my gear and checking each of my traps, and I was able to catch another rabbit in the new pit I made. In the afternoon, I was able to make it to the cave with Uncle waiting for me inside. Who had returned with all the gear I could have ever asked for. He even came with the coat…but even with the extra core for the day, I couldn't purchase it, even though I tried to see how much it was worth. It was worth about 15 cores, but I still had not gotten enough, not nearly enough for it to buy, so I had to hold off. He also came home with books, more books than I ever imagined. One of which caught my eye. It was the 'Traps and Entanglements' book from before, but I saw that on the cover of the book, it said that it was 'Volume 2 instead of 'Volume 1' like the one I already had. This meant that there was more to learn about Traps, and I wanted it. They were small, but together, maybe I could finally make a trap that could capture those giant Mountain Hounds. I hate having to run from them every day. It's terrible having to watch my back for predators. I sometimes spend minutes just looking over my shoulder. I'm tired of it. At this point, it's more frustrating how they keep on terrorizing me than when they are chasing me.
Uncle also brought in some gear, and he even had a knife in better condition than the one I had in my hands. My knife was slightly chipped with a few scratch marks on the side from the woodworking I was doing. I knew I had to use it if I needed to improve my pit. But the problem was that the handle was also starting to fray and become almost broken. And it almost seemed bent at times. It was in a terrible condition compared to the new one. The new one was shiny. It was clean. It was in 'pristine' condition. That's a new word that I learned. 'Pristine.' It means a higher quality or a higher degree of quality. I honestly thought it was a bit bigger, too. Or maybe I wore my knife down so much that it got smaller. Either way, I wish I had enough. But I need at least 35 cores to buy it, he said.
However, I decided to purchase two other books instead, one being the book 'Traps and Entanglements Volume 2,' which will help me find the traps and prepare to hunt such large beasts. I also looked at a new book named 'Crafting Tools and Weaponry,' another book that seemed to talk about different kinds of weapons. Lately, I've been just using sticks or my knife. I will find a way to improve the weapons I use. Because if I am going to hunt these things, I'm going to need many more weapons. 'Crafting Tools and Weaponry' is the exact book that I need to help me. And who knows, maybe the books I purchased. I have only purchased three books so far. The first and second volumes of 'Traps and Entanglements', and lastly, the book 'Crafting Tools and Weaponry'. The last core I used was for one night in the cave. Overall, it was a good plan because that means I can keep on working outside. Before, I used to just live in fear, trying to make enough to pay for a night in the cave. Now, I'm just trying to figure out how to survive outside.
My thoughts have changed. I only want to be inside the cave now when there's real danger lurking…or when it gets colder. Sometimes it's too cold for my tent. But otherwise, I prefer to stay outside. I also want to gather enough cores to finally reach my goal: getting that knife and that coat. That is my main objective now—getting that coat. I spent a total of three monster cores on those books. He mentioned they got them all dirt cheap, and I understand why. The book seemed of even lower quality than before. The pages were stained, but I could still read some of them. Luckily, I had a dictionary in decent condition, so I tried to figure out which words I could use to fill in the blanks. The 'Crafting Tools and Weaponry' book also lost many small details, reduced to little squiggly markings. Fortunately, I can see the actual design and shape since they included pictures of each tool.
However, the problem was that half of the pictures took up most of the page, and the small markings were instructions on how to properly build them. So I spent the rest of my night looking at both volumes of the 'Traps and Entanglements.' I learned why they call them volumes, as if multiple things can talk about the same thing, or that some information needs to be spread out between multiple books. Maybe I could also have another book for my journal. But Uncle said, 'If you wish to have another book, it costs you another core.' But I didn't have any more cores because I had spent all of my savings. 'Savings.' That's another word I learned. A word that means the wealth that you keep and save to help yourself in the future. 'Future.' So I put it underneath the future in my head. Savings are a part of the future. 'What you have now can be a part of your future. And if you grow it now, then the more you'll have it later on.' I like that idea. It gave me a bit of hope."
Day 19:
"Something amazing just happened. I stayed out these last two days, just reading both volumes of the 'Traps and Entanglements,' and I figured out how to make the gear that I needed. So, digging out the pits was a major problem for me. I just used my knife and hands to dig. I didn't think that I could get a better version of it. But then, the weirdest thing happened. In the 'Crafting Tools and Weaponry' guide that I had, it showed an image of a new kind of shovel, a 'stone shovel', and stated that it would be a lot more 'efficient.' Where would I get a flat stone? I thought of that plate in the cave, and then I knew just needed a flat stone like it, and then I could just tie it to the end, and I could have a true shovel for digging out the hard part of the ground because the ground got denser and denser as I dug down, so much so that I had to stop before the wooden shovel would start breaking after hitting a few rocks. But this, I could probably dig an even deeper hole. Both versions of the book, 'Traps and Entanglements' and the 'Basic Monster Survival Guide', mentioned that making the pit deeper is more important than making it wider because that means the animal has a lot more struggle getting out. And with spikes, they're just an added advantage. 'Traps and Entanglements' books also mentioned something about 'poison', meaning that there were more ways I could use the sticks. The books were incredibly helpful. They were almost connected to each other with their knowledge. I loved these books so much. Too bad that they were stained. Stained beyond repair. I tried to fill in some words. I even tried to draw over the letters with my little stick that was made of birch wood and lye from the ashes of my fire. It was my sole writing tool. But even then, it didn't help much. The most I could get was a few words, then I had to fill in the details. That was a difficult process, and I wasted a lot of my time over the past two days. But that's beside the point.
Now, I'm looking at an improved shovel. It was hard to find a flat stone that I could grind down to be flat enough for a shovel. I didn't want to use the flat stone board that uncle left behind for me because I knew it wasn't thick enough, or even properly shaped to be a shovel. But I finally found a very wide stone that was flat with a surprisingly sharp edge. It was by the creek in the waterway where I used to go before. I used the smooth rocks in the waterway to smash the stone into a proper shape that I could use for my new shovel, and ground down the shovel for hours, until I could use it on a large branch. It worked so well that I wondered why I didn't think about it before. In just a few digs with the new stone shovel, I could make a deep ditch in the ground that I could trip and fall into if I wasn't careful. And after seeing the shape of the ditch, I knew that the shovel could dig much better than the wooden shovel because the shape of the ditch had edges similar ot the stone shovel, while the wooden shovel only carved over and through the ground after breaking it apart. I wasn't able to test out the shovel on the pits because of the Mountain Hounds' constant watch over the woods. However, I knew with this new shovel, I could control not only how deep the pits were, but their shape too.
I also started to use the waterway for showers and cleaning my gear. I learned after being detected by the Mountain Hounds many times that my 'hygiene' was very bad. I did wash myself, but not the way you would imagine. It would only be a bucket's worth of water, and then I would just rinse it all over myself to evade the smell. And then I'd just rub myself with grass to cover up my scent when hunting. The problem was that it never lasted. The smell always came back, so I had to wash up regularly. I figured that out. I used to just follow my uncle's rule of surviving, but now I'm surviving in my own way. Now, I have to start hunting these creatures, and I mean 'actively' hunting these creatures, as I learned there was a difference. I was looking at more of a 'passive' way, but I realized that it's not going to work. The Mountain Hounds are smarter than the rabbits. Way smarter. Smarter than I am when it comes to hunting… they know their ground way better than I do. The rabbits simply seem to move from burrow to burrow. I even found the largest burrow that they used to hide from even more dangerous predators, but they didn't care since it was large and protected. They rely heavily on those burrows, so Mountain Hounds stalk them for days. That's why my safe zone became unsafe. I was watching as they were trying to dig out the burrows of the rabbits, and even though the burrow was large with plenty of ways to escape, the hounds still managed to eat a few. They ripped them apart, stripping them of their flesh and bringing back whatever was left. They were hungry, but they seemed to be periodically going outside for some reason, instead of hunting every day like me. They had a den themselves. The first day I witnessed them carry the black rabbits to the den, I was surprised.
Compared to the rabbit's home, their home was more of a cave, somewhere near the mountain where my uncle was, but past it, over the hills, it was more of a low-ground area for a cave to be placed under. On somewhat flat ground, with only a slight hill upwards to a cave. I saw how many there were. And it terrified me. 20. No. Maybe 25? Maybe even 30? Or more. I had a feeling in my gut that there was more, so much more, from the growls and the scratching on the walls. As the hounds brought the rabbits forward, I saw something even more terrifying. Something big, ravenous, horrifying. I looked inside the cave, and then I realized that Mountain Hounds were somehow even more dangerous than I thought. I'm now reading about it from the 'Basic Monster Survival, ' and I have realized that if I'd just turned the page, an even greater beast would have emerged. I only read through one part of it, thinking that there was only that basic level for the Mountain Hounds. I kept skipping to the next pages, but if I had read the back page beforehand, I would have learned about it way before I had seen it for myself. I'd probably still be as surprised.
Once I read about it after going back to my camp, it crept in, the fear I had when discovering something new that could kill me even faster. It was the alpha of the Mountain Hounds. The 'Basic Monster Survival Guide' describes them as a (D-) class monster. I don't know what that means. 'E+' to 'D-'. That's what it said. That means their power can range from those two levels. The Mountain Hounds have an alpha. The alpha then moves as you would expect, as the ruler of the cave. They direct the hounds and send them out to scout while the alpha either goes with them or sends them out by themselves to capture or create new dens. As I saw the giant hound creep its neck out of the cave, it was hard to even describe. They weren't even dog-like, more beastly than dog-like. They terrified me. Their mane was slightly bigger. Instead of the normal single line of fur striping down their neck and shoulders, they seemed to have a full mane.
Besides that, they were at least twice the size of a normal hound and seemed three times as vicious. It was teeth bare for all to see. With a deep growl, it had ordered those hounds like what I'd imagine a 'tyrant' would be called. Uncle taught me that word himself, where he said a 'tyrant' is a ruler who would easily corrupt or kill anyone who stands in their path and would make everyone else's lives horrible just for their benefit. If I knew I'd be running into the tyrant of these woods, I would have run faster. I ran back to camp and immediately began this new entry in my journal, and began searching through each of my books for new information on the Alpha. I realized then that I didn't have anything that could face that beast. I didn't have a trap that could harm it, and if I had to face that thing head-on, then I would be dead. But…I still want to hunt those hounds now because if I do, I will be a 'survivor', like what Uncle always said I should be. So I'll end my entry right now to save on paper and plan out my hunt for Mountain Hounds.
Day 20:
Today, I started training some more and was able to make it up the tree in one jump after hours of practicing. I caught a black rabbit, took its core for my savings, and used its body for my dinner and gear. I noticed that the Mountain Hounds were following me today by sniffing my traps; they smelled the scent of rabbit blood inside the spike pits and were trying to track me down. A Mountain Hound nearly found me, but I was able to use a rock to distract it, running away before it noticed me. Tomorrow, I'm going to look for the hunting paths that these hunters take to feed themselves. It will be important for my plan, the stars are still beautiful, and the sky is clear. I spent the day training and finally made it up the largest tree that I could jump up and climb. Now I'm at camp, lying down for the night, hoping that their route doesn't change, and end up where my camp is, like last time.