[You have leveled up! Jack of all trades is now level 2, you have unlocked sub jobs.]

  [You have unlocked the job Hunter.]

  [Hunter is level 1]

  [You have unlocked the job Explorer.]

  [Explorer is level 1]

  [Explorer has unlocked the skill Storage.]

  I smile as I feel a rush of energy fill my body, the passive job buffs did feel nice.

  I pull the rabbit back into the vent, watching the hornets out of the corner of my eye, they were still wandering around, seemingly looking at a way to get to me.

  I finish cutting up the wolf and portion up the meat, I tested my storage skill. Thankfully it let me store nearly all of the wolf meat. It made me smile.

  I grabbed some dry brush and some branches and make a fire, while the rabbit and wolf meat cooked, I had other jobs to do.

  First job was a hut to tan the hides, before they became useless. Then I could work on a pce to sleep.

  First was the hut, before construction starts I need a foundation, I used consume to spit out soil into a pile, this gave me a trench filled with stones and pebbles. I could use consume to break them down without taking them in, like chewing and spitting it out.

  Foundation done, I start the hut. I managed to gather vines and branches from the area and make a dome like structure. I made some pnt mush and mixed it with mud. I then coated the frame with mud and to test a theory I used consume to remove the water. It set almost instantly.

  "That is so cool."

  I did the same thing to make a door, attaching it with some whittled branch hinges slotted into mud coated vine guides. I was actually pretty happy with it.

  I then even made a chimney

  With the hut complete, I could start tanning the hides and pelts.

  I didnt need to use a braining solution since my consume removed all the membrane, so it was mostly me softening each hide then using the makeshift branch, vine and mud hut with a chimney.

  I used the hut to smoke the hides and meat from the wolf and rabbit, it was crude but it worked. I would just need to keep checking it over the next eight hours.

  Next I got to work making a hut, digging a toilet and a fire pit, the toilet was against a tree on the outer edge, I built a hut around the toiled and raised it up, I set up the fire pit and covering stones in cy I lit the fire the stone, open top, stone lid oven into pce, leaving the cy to bake after affixing the lid with more cy. I managed to get to the other vent not far from this one, they were pretty close to each other, but there wasn't another for a few miles around these two. I pnted the berries everywhere I could, I pnned on making a briar tunnel to get between the two safe zones. Even the hornets give them a wide birth, in fact I don't even know what eats the berries.

  "Wait whats the fuck eats these berries.... I mean the wolves, hornets, rabbits...everything, avoids these brambles like a damn pgue. Have I been sleeping in something that would only attract the scariest beast!?"

  I shudder to think what that could be, but I pushed it to the back of my mind for now.

  I had work to do. I dug a rge hole and lined it with ft stones, then made another hut, this time with a extra strong branch and grass roof, covered in cy, however it was almost entirely underground, I built stones around it, then onto the roof, after coating with dirt, I put the moss that grows in these clearings over the now super strong roof, there was a hidded fp you could lift to enter. I built this for sleeping in at the moment, there were 2 doors the secret one leading to the steps and the one into the hut, both would be locked with branches, these brances were ridiculously strong, even the knife I found couldn't cut them. The way they were dropped looks like they just came off naturally. Like a tree was molting, but it didn't look like any of the trees around here had the same bark pattern.

  "Could it be there are parasitic trees up in the canopy?"

  I question, then shrug and finish making my bed, branches hammered together with the barbs from the briar bushes, vine ttice for support a yer of each leaves, grass and moss, with the top being the wold pelt and the rabbit pelts to keep me warm. I smile to myself and head back to check on the smoker, I was starting to notice. My day was already into about its eighth hour, but the sun hadn't even reached its peak yet.

  "The days are longer here, by my guess 46 hours for daylight, 14 for night."

  I wasn't sure though, I had now way to confirm an hour, I had left my phones on the foot stool to go get the shopping. I had been out all day, I wasn't a social person. I was a bit of a loner, even with my wife back home. Then there was my few friends.

  "I will probably be here for years, I hope.. I hope she can move on and find love again.. Vicky.. I miss you so much."

  I colpse to my knees and just cry silently for a while. Lamenting the fact I had left the love of my life behind. We had even pnned to get married, picked baby names for fours boys and four girls. Our futures were almost set in stone. I could literally feel my heart breaking.

  After an hour or so, I finally pull myself together, and go check on the smoker. I add some more burnable wood, I had tried burning the branches, but they smelled awful and left a funny taste in my mouth. Definitely didn't want them being used for any kind of fire, the wood wasn't like any wood I knew either.

  I shrug I was in a fantasy world there was bound to be differences. I head to the bathroom and realise I needed water, outside of those damn berries. I sit down and use a stone and my knife to slice my cuts of wolf and rabbit into better prepared portions then, cutting out excess fat and silver skin. Then trimming them to make the steaks and portions look good.

  "I am falling back into my old habbits."

  I let a long sigh out, then consume the scraps.

  [Unlocked the job Butcher]

  [Butcher is level 1]

  Feeling thirsty, I munch down some more foul tasting berries.

  'I really, really need to find a river.'

  "If I keep eating those berries, I will be dangerous to other peoples health.. granted it doesn't help they taste like menthol tobacco.. wait! Are they tobacco!? No no, wait... paint.. 2 pack cquer! Wait..are they cyanide berries?"

  'Of course they are... I am hydrating with death berries...'

  I gulp down my mouthful of liquid death. Curious about what will happen to the poor thing that bites me next.

  'I feel like my breath alone could kill thousands, my sweat is probably already toxic..'

  Letting out another despair ridden sigh, I clench my fist.

  "Tomorrow I find a river!"

  Not just for water, but for fish too. I love a nice grilled fish.

  I know the smoking has already taken around 12 hours so far. I head back to my main section, I like this one due to the rge solitary tree in the middle of the safe zone. I pce another rock down as the sun hits its apex.

  "Now I can work out from sunrise to midday, how this divides up!"

  I quickly move from section to section, making sure my angles are correct.

  I sit and wait for the sun to reach the next stone in line.

  I had a bag full of smoked wolf, so I took a bite of the juicy fvourful meat, it was delicious. I ate until my percentage stalled, which seems to be for this session to be 5%, so I switch to rabbit, which leads me to another 5%, I didn't have anything else so, I just waited. Eventually I got my answer, which let me correct the angles accordingly.

  "I was right sixty hour days, damn... 2 and a half days in a day night cycle, but with only 12 hours of night, 1 hour each of dawn and dusk is a bit, but seriously a 46 hour work day.... I feel sorry for this worlds retail workers."

  I seriously hoped the workers in this world only worked 8 hour shifts, but it was highly unlikely.

  I clear my throat, that line of thought was depressing. I sigh then start scratching the roman numerals onto my rocks. After finishing I look at the rge tree in the middle.

  "How is this even growing?"

  I walk into the trees vicinity, and I immediately notice.

  "This tree feels warm.."

  I stroke the tree, the bark was almost soft.

  "This isn't a normal tree, she is special aren't you."

  I smile at the tree.

  "Please have patience with this youngster."

  I carry on with my tasks namely digging, a whole lot of it, I made a few dozen pit traps and filled them with briar barbs, then I checked on the smoker again and added some more brush to the fire. Thankfully, I now knew I only had 2 more checks before the hides were done, although I knew the meat was actually done, so that was removed from the smoker.

  Thus began my quest looking for water, I had a rabbit and wolf meat break washed down with death berry juice, after another 4 hours that I gave up and went home, I did however manage to catch some more rabbits and a few weird snake things and found some new berries and some leaves and pnts I wanted to check, I skinned and gutted the catch and when I used consume I was pretty impressed.

  Forest rabbit :65%☆

  Dex & Int +19, increased movement speed [B], spring step [B]

  Acid Viper :10%

  Str, Int, Wis & Cha +1

  "Acid viper, not bad. My rabbit ranked up again? So the cap is 4 hour intervals?"

  I was starting to understand my ability, it let me gain boosts and abilities. The fact I can accumute stat boosts like this was kinda scary.

  I grab some of the excess rabbits filling them with bck necrid berries. Then pcing them around the forest. My idea was if anything eats them it will die, then I can get rger prey. I make sure to skin the rabbits first, I want the pelts.

  'I mean, I need the pelts, I just have no way to store the meat yet. I return back to base and have my consume remove the membrane from the pelts. Then I stretch them an attack them to a rack. Pcing them in the smoker. I shave some of the pelts intending to use it as rope and straps. I sigh at all the work I needed to do, I had to make sure my survival was easy, I was doing well. That was thanks to me being a survivalist, I learned quite the array of normally useless information. Just in case I needed to start over or teach the next generation in a bunker.

  Yeah I was paranoid. I had heard that from my mother and Vicky quite often.

  However.....

  I look out into where I found myself. The impossibly huge trees shrouding the forest in darkness.

  "Maybe not that paranoid..."

  Looking around my new home, I finally get a chance to think. Mostly about the things I will likely never see again.

  "I miss you Vicky, I miss our home, the cats, sitting on the sofa watching anime, while you draw. I miss your smell, your voice and your soft and gentle smile."

  I lie on my back looking at the sky. A tear running down my cheek as I think of the woman I left behind.

  "I'll never be going home, will I? I'm completely stuck here.."