The bag was tied down to the sled, and an extra length tied at either end of the top cross pole gave Gar something to pull it with. Once everything was secure as it was going to be, Gar gave it a little test. The sled slid quite easily on the grass. He still felt the burden but it was manageable, much better than trying to carry the bag. Setting off Gar moved slowly but consistently. It didn’t take much longer than it had the first time before he was at the tree he had hid from the conrex in. Having already decided to stop and hunt some conrex for food, he left the sled at the base of the tree and climbed up into it activating observe and mana sight He scanned along the sides of his flattened path in search of some more conrex to hunt, he was worried that his hunting of so many of them the other day might have scared them off. These worries were unfounded however as now he knew what to look for it didn’t take him long to find a number not too far from the path. Gar scanned for all Conrex’s near where he planned to hunt having marked them all in about five minutes he still spent ten more scanning to make sure nothing had been missed.

  “Observe levelled up Observe level 2”

  Before he climbed down again Gar reviewed what he was doing and why, he wasn’t comfortable with his own decision making recently. He needed food, so he was hunting conrex; he wouldn’t bother with too many because he had no way to keep the meat. He was picking conrex to hunt because they were known which was better than trying to look for a new unknown prey. The conrex where only really a danger if unseen but he countered that because his ability’s and skills let him see them. After the thorough revision of his actions, Gar was more confident of his plan so upon getting to the ground he tied a new knife to a stick he had brought with him just for this use. Once set he moved on bringing the sled with him. When he reached a spot where a marked conrex was near the edge of his path he set at it with the same tactic as before, he flattened the grass up to it before dispatching it with a single strike.

  “You have killed a level 3 conrex 4 experience awarded”

  Picking up the body Gar looked into the grass where he could see several more marked Conrex’s not far away, he felt pushed to go after them, to hunt them all down, Gar wasn’t going to do that though he pulled back to his path. He repeated these actions with the next three conrex that where not far from his path netting him 7 more experience and a total of four conrex corpses which were added to the pack on the sled. Once he had four he stopped hunting them, part of him wanted to hunt more the experience and levelling up only seemed like a good thing. That wasn’t the priority though and he knew it, perhaps another time he would come back and hunt to level up but for now the main thing was to keep moving. He did however stop at each of the trees that were on his path both to rest to let his stamina recover and to scout the next part of the path marking any conrex near it. Gar was aware he couldn’t run with the sled and was reluctant to abandon it, the tools on it would be the difference between his survival and not, so he was cautious to know of any potential threats at each stage besides the opportunity to put down his burden even for a little while was welcome, the sled may of made moving his pack easier but it was still hard work. The marked conrex where a very tempting target, seeming to call to him, especially the ones right near the path but Gar had enough so he kept going past them.

  It took a while but eventually he was at the river, now was where things could be difficult, getting the bag across the river. Gar had been thinking about that for most of the walk, if he tried to swim with the bag on his back he would be weighed down and drown, even if he was to get the bag to float he would still lose it in the current in the middle, he had even considered tying a rope across the river from tree to tree to use as a guide to help him get the bag across the river, but all of these methods still required him to be in the river with the bag trying to fight the current and get the bag across, he knew he did not have the strength for that. So he went for another method. First he left the sled at the water’s edge and went and collected some wood from the last tree he had passed, before stacking it on the sled. Then he set of downstream looking for a good spot, he walked for a while before he found it. It hadn’t been easy bringing the sled along the rougher ground of the river bank, but it was an area where the river wasn’t quite as wide as where he crossed previously causing a faster current but still quite calm. Using the extra wood he made the sled longer and wider but wasn’t so worried about keeping all the sticks so tight together larger overall area was the goal. He then dragged the whole lot into the river’s edge, it worked the bag was floating, well it wasn’t sinking, the bottom of the bag was under the water. Dragging it back so it was just on the shore, Gar then took all the rope other then what was holding the bag down, tied them all together end to end before attaching one end to the sled and the other round his waist.

  He went a way back up stream then set out into the water rope trailing behind him, he walked as far as he could then dived forward and swam hard. He didn’t try to fight the current just focused on moving across. Suddenly something snagged on his leg and he kicked out trying to dislodge it. It just wrapped tighter. He starts to panic. He lifts his head up and looks back it’s the rope caught on his leg, but he also sees he isn’t far from the shore, he dives forwards again the rope tight on his leg he gives up kicking just pulls himself through the water with his arms, strong powerful strokes only a little lopsided from his still sore shoulder.

  “New skill acquired Swimming level 1”

  Whether that is a reward for accomplishing his task or the help he needed for the last push before he feels his hand scrape against the river bed, he fights to put his feet down, he can feel the pull of the rope in the current, fighting him, he pulls himself forwards feet and hands in the ground fighting the rivers pull on the rope, he scrambled up onto shore laying back. He leans forward grabbing the rope just below his foot leaning back as he pulls he is able to get enough slack to slip his leg free, where the rope had wrapped round it. The leg was sore but didn’t look to damaged his back hurt worse. He wanted to rest but the job wasn’t done yet, he had floated further downstream than he wanted and had to walk back up stream to the tree he had been aiming for. It took a lot more effort than he thought it would to walk that distance dragging the rope behind him. Once there Gar walked round the tree twice stepping over the rope, before untying it from his waist and retying it to the tree. Now he could rest and that’s what he did, sitting down back against the tree staring at his pack across the river, his stamina low. He sat like that until his stamina was full and he had his breath back ready for the next step.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Standing he checked the rope was secure to the tree before taking hold of it and starting to pull it took some effort but he got the sled on the other side of the river moving, it then slid into the water, before the current took it down stream. At which point he let go of his end of the rope and watched as the half floating sled, now raft, carried his bag downstream and then when it reached the extent of the rope started to come across the stream, due to the arc as it’s tied to the tree. In short order the bag and sled was up against the bank on Gars side of the river, it actually took longer for Gar to get the bag from the river’s edge onto the bank than it did for it to cross the whole river, by the time it was done Gar was a muddy mess. Where the bag had come to rest had been less than ideal, right up against a steep muddy bank. Gar took a dip back in the river to clean off in the water, for the first time he realised he wasn’t even cold in the water, he could tell the water was cool and it wasn’t an overly warm day but it didn’t seem to bother him. Chalking it up to part of his new physiology he finished cleaning up as best as he could, then he went and collected his rope from the tree, dismantled the extras he had added to the sled to help it float and set off again, downstream dragging the sled with him. He had considered going back up stream to the lake as it might be a good source of fish but it was too close to the dire bears for his comfort and if it was a good source of fish they would likely know than as well, so downstream he went following along the river bank. The gravel banks weren’t the best for dragging the sled over but Gar managed and kept moving.

  As he went down stream he felt himself going down a very gentle slope, it appeared the whole area went downhill, the plants also changed less grass and shrubs near the river like he had seen and more trees but these where tall and thin with no lower branches, Gar wondered about the reason for the change but had no clue as to why. He could see the river disappeared into the cliff face through a large cave, in fact the wall of the cenote on this side looked like Swiss cheese covered in caves, some on ground level some of them part way up the rock wall. It was an impressive site with the river plunging into the biggest cave at the base and disappearing into the darkness inside.

  The awe-inspiring site brought nothing but dread to Gar, he now knew what kinds of things could be living in those caves. It had been a long day and Gar had been planning to rest once he reached the cliff wall, but not now. It would take him to long to check all these caves today and there was no way he was stopping here without checking them. So he started moving away from the river while still a good distance from the caves, still following the cliff wall round not wanting to get to far from it either. Fortunately the trees where spread out enough to easily let him bring the sled through but stopped enough growth under them he didn’t have to worry about any conrex hiding in long grass. Gar was getting tired, he was hungry, his nerves were frayed and he had been pulling this sled all day. He needed to stop, to rest, to eat but all of that had to wait he needed to find a safe place first, to do that but he wasn’t sure what form that place would be. The caves in the wall had stopped after a couple hundred meters so once clear of them he moved closer to the cliff wall, searching for a place to rest.

  Then he found a place, a place that might be good. From what he could see it was a plateau off the cliff wall; it stuck out thirty meters and was about Fifteen meters up. From his angle he couldn’t see how long it was, what Gar could see as he approached it was that it had several trees on it. If it was clear on top it might be an ideal spot. Once he was up to the base of the plateau Gar dropped the rope for the sled, he was so ready for a rest but he wasn’t willing to stop yet, he felt he was so close to somewhere that could potentially offer him some safety he couldn’t stop yet. Standing at the base of the wall he looked up at this angle it looked a long way pulling a rope from his bag he secured it to his waist and tied the other end to his bag he had his spear slung over his back with a bit of rope, that wasn’t helping, but he reached up took a hold of the rock and started to climb, the other hand then onto the foot then the other foot, start again hand, hand, one foot then the other. Repeat again arm, other arm, foot, other foot, a slip, a grab, hold breath. Gar in that moment couldn’t have said how far up he was or how far he had to go, he was tired, hungry and scared but he just couldn’t stop, not yet, a bit more, he kept going. Then he reached out a bit too far and he was falling, unsure if he let go, he slipped or if the rock gave out. He had no time to think before he hit the ground, hard. His wounded back flared to life with pain his breath driven from him. His stamina half empty and filling ever so slowly, his health missing a third. He just lay there wanting to close his eyes and stop, just give up. No. he had decided he was going to do this, he didn’t get to give up, giving up now might mean his death. So instead he slowly got to his feet, stood in front of the wall, one hand on the wall then the other, then one foot and then the other again he began to climb focused on nothing but the rock he climbed and climbed one hand after the other. He felt like he had been climbing for ages and wanted to look up to see how far he had to go but he focused on the rock just in front of himself and kept climbing it wasn’t much longer and his hand went over the top shortly followed by the rest of him. He just lay there breathing heavily at some point in the climb his climbing skill had levelled up he could see the notification now

  “Climb levelled up Climb level 2”

  But he just blinked it away. He lay on his back resting but tipped his head up to look around suddenly aware he had no idea what was actually up here, he was relieved to see not much, it was a relatively flat area with three trees spread out not to far from him and a carpet of short green grass or moss with some large stones near the Cenote wall. Getting up he first went to the closest tree and untied the rope from his waist and tied it to the tree he wasn’t ready to deal with that yet, he was not going to lose it though so tied to the tree it was. He took a walk around the thirty by fifty-ish meter area. There really wasn’t much too it, it was flat open ground other than those three trees. That is until he got to the wall near the far side of the plateau, set into the wall a few meters from the furthest edge was a small cave, small enough that even on his hands and knees it would be a tight fit for Gar. That would need to be investigated but not right now. Gar activated mana sight and observe to check there was nothing near the entrance, which there wasn’t, he then rolled a number of the largest stones over the cave entry before stacking more around them so they wouldn’t move easily. Accepting that the hole was sealed as best as he could for now Gar had one last task and he would stop for the day. He returned to the tree he had tied the rope to, took the rope in hand running it around his back and pulled, leaning into it, he felt the bag and sled down below start to move. He didn’t have the strength to pull hand over hand so instead he bent his knees flexed, took the strain and took a step back, slow and steady as he repeated his bag began to rise. He kept going and the bag kept rising he could now see the sled rising over the lip of the plateau.

  “New skill acquired Hauler level 1”

  Gar kept going pulling until the sled and bag where over the edge tipping onto the top. Gar took several more steps just to make sure it wouldn’t fall back down before he just let go and dropped to the floor to relax. He hadn’t planned on it but now with nothing else he had to do and a somewhat safe place, Gar was asleep on the ground before he had another thought.