Gathering Supplies and More

"Hmmmm..."

"Watcha thinking about?" Knives asked.

After a passionate morning and a meal they'd relaxed for a bit before heading out. They'd swum out of the cove and around to the shore to the south. Roman wanted to explore to the north but didn't want to chance swimming into an unknown. It was tiring enough taking their gear. Luckily dried Slime skins made pretty good imprivised water repellent dry bags. With some time and better materials they might be able to be improved upon. Still they'd only taken a light change of clothes and their basic gear. After all for now anything they brought back would have take the same route.

"I'm thinking about materials to gather," he said rubbing his chin. They'd reached the beach undetected and made their way inland to the forested area.

"Huh?" Knives said and blinked confused. "I don't get it. We need wood right? And food? Something more than fish and stuff."

Roman nodded and rubbed his chin. "We certainly do but that's the problem. Capacity." He patted a tree trunk. "We don't have the tools to cut and process a whole tree for example... and even if we did moving one would be problematic. It's possible we could simply float one out on the tide but then getting it into the cove side beach would be difficult. We can only carry so much ourselves and need to try to time the tides to our advantage so we're working with it as much as possible instead of against it." He shook his head. "I don't want to run the risk of drowning for either of us."

"Oh!" Knives said making a fust out of her right hand and smacking her left palm. "I get it! Yeah that would be bad. Hmmm... and not only can we only carry only so much stuff, we can only keep so much stuff dry too, right?"

Roman nodded and even smiled a bit. She caught on fast. "Right. We need to prioritize dry wood and food. Then crafting materials and things we find that need to be dry from things that won't matter if they get a little wet. For instance." He picked up a empty nut shell. "Nuts have a natural shell. If they get a bit wet it won't harm them much."

Knives nodded. "And other things might not work as well. I get it." She blinked and her eyes went wide and shone. "That's why you were working on that net thingy!"

Roman chuckled and patted his pack. He had been slowly weaving a very simple net bag in his spare moments the last two days. Especially after their discovery yesterday. "Yup! It's not good for catching game. We don't exactly have the right materials for that yet or the time to make one. But a net bag? That's different. And if we load the things that can get wet into it along with blowing up some slime bladders and other stuff that floats we might be able to float and guide it to our camp!"

"Awesome!" Knives said enthusiastically. "I'm impressed! So what should we get?"

Roman shrugged. "It's not that impressive. A lot of survival is simply having the knowledge and know-how and then acquiring the right set of skills. If I show you what to gather do you think you can collect food while I gather wood and other materials?"

She sketched a mock salute. "You betcha! Leave it me!" She paused thoughtfully. "Do you want to use one of my daggers?"

Roman thought about that before shaking his head. "I appreciate the thought but no. The camping knife is fine and even if you have some to spare I don't want you going without your weapons. There are dangers out here."

Knives nodded seriously. "You mean other than creatures."

He nodded too. "Right. Other players. They'll be drawn to the shoreline area for the same reasons as us. To gather food and things. Some may even be setup in this area and claiming it as their territory. Same goes for creatures and beasts. Stay alert and stay nearby at all times. If trouble happens I want it be when we're together. I won't lose you. Us staying together is the most important thing. Understood?"

She nodded seriously even though hearing his words made her happy because she felt the same way. "Understood."

They worked diligently for several hours foraging and gathering. Roman was pleased. Knives worked quite well. She gathered a variety of different things and learned quickly about what was edible and what was possibly poisonous. Her agility and ninja like skills made her especially good at climbing up trees to gather fruits and nuts.

Meanwhile he collected wood and materials. He'd spotted some driftwood on the shore they could use for buoyancy to float things back to their camp. He'd gathered some dry wood though it had taken some doing as well as vines and even some decent rocks for knapping. If they lashed everything together he felt they could manage it as they were both fairly strong swimmers.

There was another benefit to Knives acrobatic skills...

*Knock! Knock!*

Roman froze in place only looking up. He spotted Knives high up in a tree. She pointed to her eyes then held up 4 fingers before pointing to the south. She'd spotted four potential enemies heading their direction from the south. Roman nodded and gave her a thumbs-up followed by a raised fist to hold her position... and saw her shrug. She didn't understand. He held up both hands like he wanted her to "wait" and resolved to work on hand signals with her. She nodded giving him a thumbs-up of understanding.

He sighed. They'd spotted a few individuals and even a pair once. As much as Roman had been tempted to ambush them he'd let them go and avoided them for several reasons. First this early in the game the rewards were likely to be small. Second they could have been part of a larger group. And finally their current priority was collecting food and materials for their use.

The first was just common sense and logic and the last was necessity. The second reason was applied reason and human nature however and he'd been thinking about it from the very beginning. This island was much bigger than from the previous games that had featured a rather small number of contestants... but there were many more contestants this time around too. A lot more. Just like the trio from the other day, folks wouldn't just likely start working together in groups... Given time they'd form progressively larger bands of Primes and Characters both. Generally speaking a group could accomplish so much more than an individual after all. But beyond the sparse rules there was only one law on the island and that was survival of the fittest. In a groups stronger individuals would cow weaker ones into followers under them as leaders on pain of "game over". Claim the best rewards and Characters as their own and passing the rest off to subordinates and underlings.

It wasn't just to br expected by Roman's calculations, it was inevitable. A fore gone conclusion. That was human nature too.

Were these people hostile? He didn't know but it was best to assume so and be wrong than the opposite in this situation. One thing he was certain about was that they couldn't lightly afford to give up their supplies... and 2 to 1 odds while not great weren't terrible, especially if Knives could stay hidden and keep the element of surprise. He put up an illusion around the supplies and moved to place himself between them and the others. He leaned nonchalantly against a tree trunk and waited.

He didn't have to wait long.

"Oh shit," said a guy with longish hair and a backpack leading a barefoot Disney Jane Porter. He was bleeding from a wound to his right arm and carrying a branch as a club and her clothes were torn. "Get behind me," he told Jane and putting himself between her and Roman. "Are you with them?"

Roman shook his head. "No," he said judging the situation and making a decision. "Hide."

"Seriously?" He asked followed by Jane asking. "You're certain? Why?"

Roman nodded as the sounds of pursuit got louder and repeated himself. "Hide... half your stuff. I'll handle it. Or... take your chances and keep running. Your choice."

"But that's-" Jane started to say.

"Done!" The man cut her off. "It's a bargain! Thank you!" He said rushing past.

Jane nodded. "Good luck to you!"

"Keep it. Don't need it," Roman said visibly smirking and appearing nonchalant... but was actively concentrating to extend his illusion to cloak them and their trail. It took effort to add two more and hide their trail. "I make my own luck."

Again he didn't have to wait long.

"Hey!" Said a a guy with a crew cut and beard with a machete stepping out of the trees followed by a guy with a bat. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Nobody," he said.

"Funny," the second guy with slicked back hair and moustache said pointing at him with his bat. "You definitely don't look like just a "nobody" to me, funny guy!"

Roman pushed his hat up with his index finger. "Nobody worth mentioning... not to the likes of you."

"Well that's down right unfriendly," said the beard guy as the two of them started spreading out around him. "Look we ain't interested in you. We're after this other guy and his lady Character. How about you tell us which way they went and we leave you alone... for now?"

Roman smiled. "Counter proposal. You two turn around and I'll let you walk away... for now."

"No deal! Let's do this asshole and then get back to picking back up the trail!" Said mustache readying his bat, spiting at him.

Roman pulled out his handkerchief with his left hand and wiped away a speck of sputum. "Well seems like we have a breakdown in negotiations. Tragic." He'd already worked out sixteen different stratagems, attacks and counters in his head.

Mustache rushed him from the left and beardy from the right.

Roman flicked his handkerchief in the face of Mustachio distracting him while Knives dropped down behind him and Roman brought up his cane to parry beardy and his machete. He'd noticed the guy had a slight hitch in his step on the mans right side earlier and he stepped into it now. He knocked his knee against his opponents feeling it give putting the guy off balance and disengaged his left hand to grab the man's beard. He savagely pulled down while bringing his knee up into the guys crotch, then his chin as the man lost strength. He knocked the machete from his fingers, turned hiking his cane under the man's arm and used it to flip him over his body and slam him into the ground.

He noted Knives dispatching her opponent out the corner of his eye and considered beardo. He gave the guy a stomp to his solar plexus forcing the air out of him in a rush before kneeling down to open the RTS menu on his bracer. He transferred all the **** guys assets to himself with a "Kaching" soundeffect for him and a "gameover" for his opponent before turning to Knives opponent and repeating the process. "Nice work," he said. "You picked up my signal nicely."

"Thanks!" She said beaming happily at the praise and started to help him strip them of their backpacks and items. "I think we're really starting to work well together!"

Roman smiled and nodded. "I think so too. I'm starting to anticipate your move sets and match mine to yours."

She smiled too. "It's impressive how you do that. How far ahead can you see?"

Roman shrugged. "Only seconds. A full minute or two at best. My father can see so much further but he has much greater experience than I... and he thinks I have the talent to be greater than him someday. That I have a real knack for it."

"Excuse us?" Said the guy with longish hair and his Jane Porter who said, "We wanted to say thank you for your help."

"Half," Roman said turning to them and pointing. "Half your stuff. We pick. That's the deal. Show me... now."

"R-Right," said the guy tacking off his pack and setting it down before him. "That was our deal," the guy said opening up his bracers display and transferring half his tokens and showing it to Roman before backing away.

Roman hit accept on his display and went through their packs. He left them both of their knives and canteens and all of their food... but took everything else. Flint and steel, a compass, a spyglass, a shovel and a sack. He paused and took the bat they'd gained and stuck it in the guys bag along with a shirt. "Better club than that branch your using. Take it, bind your wounds and go."

"Thank you," they both said surprised. It was a fair deal. Perhaps more than fair. "Thank you so much!" The said before taking their packs and going off into the woods.

Knives smiled. "That was nice of you."

Roman shrugged. "Nah. It wasn't. It was a fair deal though," he smiled looking at all their gathered things. "And I'd say this was a profitable venture... Very profitable, actually!" He mussed. It gave him further insight into ideas he'd been mulling over.

Knives grinned. "You're plotting something aren't you?"

Roman grinned too. "Maybe... But first thing's first. Let's move some of these things back to camp."

[Roman Stark and Knives Chau

Will Return In

Recruiting

Coming Soon]