[Anomaly]

A new day brought a new bout of panic in the morning as he remembered that he was transferred into a game and was no longer in the “real” world. It certainly wasn’t something he was going to get used to any time soon, but the fact that so much time had passed and it hadn’t gotten any better didn’t give him much hope that it would ever get better. But still, he got out of bed and put on his robes. Double checking that he had everything, which was at this point just his staff and gathered items, he began his run out to the ciminian forest yet again.



The last time he was farming for resources in the forest he’d nearly gotten speared by a drear buck, so he didn’t plan on fighting one… or multiple at once like last time, especially not since he’d already gathered enough hide for what he had planned. No. what he needed now was higher quality materials for the paper he’d need for his grimoire, alongside some other possible materials to further boost the quality of his gear. Plus, the gold drops would certainly help with getting a good craftsman to make the gear he wanted,



Once he’d reached the edge of the forest, as he didn’t have an axe for the time being, he’d started preparing to chop down trees with sheer magical might alone, even if there was a decent chance that some of the wood would be unusable, he knew that it was better than doing nothing at all, especially if what he had plan worked, since that’d be increasing his survival odds by quite a large margin.



As he walked through the forest, stopping to mark trees that he may be interested in tearing down, he rummaged through the local plantlife with the tip of his staff, having learnt his lesson from the last time about not using your bear hands to mess with plants you knew little of. Using the end to dig them out root and all, before popping them into his inventory immediately as to not accidentally loose them, like if he were to use a physical method of storage such as a basket or bag.



“I wonder how many people were moved into this game…? I'm sure there must be at least a few competent tailor and scribe classes, so i shouldn’t be at risk of my gathering being for naught, but i will still need to be at least a little careful with my choices, after all, wasting resources would be a rookie mistake, while not using the resources at all would be dull, holding onto them for a while until i can find a tailor and scribe that i trust to do the work i have planned justice would probably be the best course of action i can undergo? I don’t know anymore, i don’t have many on my friends list, so its not like i can just message one of them to help me with any of my current issues…”



His thoughts continue trailing off onto the logistics of how he was going to get everything made being alone in the forest gave him ample time to think over his plans, his staff rapidly uprooting plants he found a mild interest in with every few moments he continued walking, before he finally making his way back to one of the trees he’d marked before.



His hands gripped his staff firmly as he channeled mana into his buffs and lightning coil, electricity arcing from the tip of his staff licking at the plants and his arm within close enough proximity for them to reach, harmlessly gliding over the surface of them. Before violently bursting out and chaining between the closest marked trees. The water in the trees that were marked violently boiling around the cutting lines he’d marked, causing the cells in the wood to violently burst, resulting in each of the trees having a sequentially smaller hole blown out of the side of them, before the second lightning spell rung out, cutting through more of the trees with a violent precision. The loud noise of the trees splintering causing the smaller fauna to flee from the general area, birds rapidly flying away from the perceived threat in flocks large enough to be seen from under the canopies of the forest.



Loosening the grip on his staff and sighing, he continues looking around for more plants as his cooldowns kick in, forcing him to wait before he can continue chopping down the trees the only way he currently can. His staff more violently hitting the dirt as he digs up further plantlife the lack of any form of other equipment slowly getting to him as his cooldowns tick down



Finally, his cooldowns reach zero,at which point he forces out his buffs and attacks with as much force as he can, felling a few of the trees with the second round of attacks, but thanks to the slowly decreasing damage, not all of them. Of course this isn't too big of an issue, and more of a mild inconvenience, but it got on his nerves, in his eyes, waiting is one of the worst ways to spend your time, since it means you aren't doing anything else, hence why he was continuing to search for more plants as his cooldowns restricted the speed he could harvest at.



His searching continues, thoroughly scanning through the plant life around the trees that he was currently working around. Digging out more and more plants, looking disappointed as most of them weren't anything useful, Throwing away what he didnt need he threw two more lightning coils at the remaining trees, finally knocking down the last of the trees that he’d marked, in total it probably took him a few hours in order to knock out all of the trees, and gather the subsequent wood drops from the felled trees. But he didnt stop there, he was already out here for some plants, and he wasn’t going to stop at just a few trees. He wanted the highest quality materials he could find.

Word count: 1026

[Anomaly]

Following the minor act of deforestation he’d committed, anomaly began scouring the woods for whatever plantlife seemed the most valuable, ignoring the previous “common sense” rule he put in place for himself, caring more about efficiency than for weather he’d have an upset stomach from the mild toxins in some of the plants that were concerningly common.



His motions seemed rushed as he pushed himself to scour the forest, rapidly avoiding any of the fauna that hadn’t ran from the sounds of trees being felled, aware that most of them would be a challenge to fight if he wasn’t actively preparing to fight something, like how the drear bucks had managed to wisen up to his tactics and force him into taking a hit… which was odd, after all, back when he was only playing this as a video game they’d never had the ability to adapt to attack patterns…



“Learning attack patterns… if bosses remember their killers between lives, like we do… this world is going to be getting exponentially harder the more we exploit the resources available to us.. Though, i don’t think its going to be much of an issue for me, I don't plan on fighting any bosses until i know for a fact that i can at least exploit a few of the mechanics to make them easier to kill… like the Catoblepas… the… Catoblepas… hm, could i… no, i only have one attack that could interrupt, which would mean i’d have to wait until its going to use its petrifying attack before i use any of my one higher damaging spell to attack it… though i suppose exclusively attacking the petrifying eye for critical damage may work… since i don’t know if there’s a method to use it…”



His planning continues, outlining the various details and conditions, alongside the equipment he’d want if he actually wanted to manage to kill one of those things, which needless to say, was a rather large list that was currently unobtainable to him. At least for the time being, though the more he thought about it, the more he realised he could likely manage to do it as he was, albeit with a rather large risk of death…. Shaking that bad idea out of his mind he continues scouring the forest for whatever plants he can find, the obvious hope was to find a golden brough, after all, something like that was always going to be the ideal drop when it came to high quality equipment, considering how a single one would greatly enhance an item, and each drop had THREE of them, though the five percent drop chance was rather irritating. Especially when he wasn't nearly as skilled as he’d like to be when it came to gathering… though that could be put down to being low level.



As he tore a few more plants out of the ground, he noted down the rest of the ingredients he’d need for the set he was hoping for in his mind, mulling over the benefits and drawbacks of each choice



“If i were to go to the coast i could probably get a golem core rather easily with air mana… and considering how useful the interrupts air spells tend to provide are, it would be great for a combat interrupt style build… like the one i'm currently using, but that’d take a while… the best option would probably be to try to mine some topaz and use that to create an ink for the eyed grimoire… though its going to take a lot of research and development to develop a new customised item like that… so i may have to continue farming for a while longer, after all the funds to pay a professional to do that much work is going to be rather painful in the long run./ I could try to ask someone for a loan of gold… no, debt is never a good idea, no matter what world i'm in.”



And yet again, his thoughts continue, quiet muttering practically filling the small part of the forest he was temporarily occupying with his thoughts, plans, and fears. Each and every idea that stuck seemed to be harder and harder to dislodge the more he tried to reason against it, while a vast majority of ideas got dropped within the first few seconds of talking about them. The focus shifting to his thoughts causing him to continually make more and more mistakes while harvesting, taking HP damage every once in a while as he manages to injure his fingers uprooting some of the more dangerous plants, despite this, still getting minimal item rewards out of his work…



With all of that done, he begins his path back… Thanks to the doubled mana regeneration his race gave him, he had recovered enough mana to fend off any of the more aggressive fauna that was along his path back, not knowing what was going to be there, he was on guard. Moving relatively slowly along the path he’d made through his hours of harvesting resources from the woods. The felled and harvested trees making decent landmarks for navigating his way back to the temporary accommodations he’d been using for a while now. Thankfully, he didn’t run into anything more dangerous than a doe this time around, especially after he’d taken on more than he was comfortable with last time around. He was still uncomfortable with the thought that the monsters could learn and adapt, but he pushed that to the back of his mind for the time being, the more important thing was building up an arsenal of good gear, to supplement and further enhance his magical capabilities.



“I should have stayed out there longer, but i think that was enough for todays gathering session. Ill buy a map of the forest proper before i go back there to fight more of those bucks, but i need to rest for now… ill check what i’ve harvested later…”


Word count: 997
Total word count: 2023

[Anomaly]

The next day, Anomaly once again goes through the same routine of slowly waking up, freaking out as he slowly remembers what had happened and why he was there, then finally getting up, equipping all of his minimal equipment and finally heading out back towards the woods. This time, with a borrowed, old rusty pickaxe. It was very clearly on the verge of falling apart anyway, so it wasnt much better than just blasting rocks with attack spells to mine, but it was a lot faster than waiting for the spells to recharge, so, with his Material greed growing ever brighter, he heads back out into the woods to go and gather far more resources.



Following the same path he had yesterday, he tries to look for particularly rocky areas where he could start mining, unaware of any particular areas that would be good to do so he comes across a rather empty and rocky clearing. The only downside being the abundance of plants covering the path there, overgrown as the woods was, it wouldn’t dissuade him. So as usual he brought his poor herbalism skills out to be of assistance, picking plants as he went,using his staff to break the plants coating the path with brute force rather than the sharp knife that was probably the best option here, but unfortunately as a mage, he had no reason to have a proper knife on him…



Of course despite the fact the flora constantly sliced his hands in painful but overall minimally impactful, made him feel unwell, and many other things that are constantly painful. He still enjoyed the possibility of pulling a rare plant. The RNG mixed with the fact that his plans were rather ambitious were rather exiting, which allowed him to continue ignoring the pain, creating a decently easy to traverse path further along the forest, his boots that were trampling the ground flattening it as he continues pulling more and more, throwing out anything that was a rarity of 0, not feeling as though he needed it. At least for the time being that is…



Fingers stained various colors from the plants he’d picked, he finally makes his way through his newly cleared path to the area he’d planned on mining, his rather weak frame was going to make this difficult but he didnt mind, he was a mechanic after all, and he had real world knowledge he could implement! After he’d gathered all of the materials he’d need he knew for a fact that he’d be able to manage pulling off some form of power tools to make his future resource gathering far easier. Or at least he hoped that he’d be able to, he knew people could make things the system didnt let them, but he had no idea if the mana-fed drills or chainsaws he wanted to make would be possible. Despite that, he continued along with his new idea of how he sould spend his time. With the resources he had in his inventory filling his mind, he hefted the rusty pick up, sloppy posture overshadowed by the sheer zeal he put into mining. The loud metallic CLACK of metal on stone ringing out solidifying his ambitions in his mind further as his pace slowly yet steadily increased, stamina getting burnt through quickly he drove fissures into the rock, before pulling it apart, and further separating it. He knew the likelihood of getting anything good from harvesting like this was relatively low, especially since he didn’t have specialist gathering skills,



Each motion his pickaxe made rent rock as it continued driving between the fissures made by the last, he was lucky he had the pickaxe because apparently these rocks were going to be a hassle to break down, while they fissured nicely, they didn’t do so thoroughly enough to make each fissure of any use unless you continuously assailed the same spot over and over again.



By the time his samina ran out the first time his breathing was ragged and far more pained than it should be, the lack of physical stats making mining far more irritating than the other possible options of acquiring resources, yes. But the pride that came with it was something that was unmatched, being able to state that he was the one who made everything that he was using was something he’d always wished he was able to do in his life outside of the game, true independence from any from of outside help… of course he didn’t want to be entirely independent in the game, talking to others and relying on them was still the better option, after all humanity is a social species, and he was no exception, but he couldn’t just deny his pride so readily.



Stamina refilled, he braces himself further, lowering his stance as he puts more of his weight behind each swing, letting gravity do most of the work for him as he drives the pick further into the other stones surrounding the large rock he’d split into pieces, after gathering up the ores that were embedded in the rock, he lifts his head in pride. Moving onto the next and beginning the process anew, reaching a snag as the tip of the pickaxe gets caught, giving it a few moment, he blasts the rock with lightning, dislodging the pickaxe before he continues mining again. Thankful that he was alone, after all, if anyone saw that he’d be embarrassed half to death.



Through the next hour or so he continues splitting up the rocks, grabbing whatever ore seemes to be buried in the rock, and moving onto the next rocks. Making sure not to accidentally leave any possible ore, even if it seems poor quality, he’d buy the ore he wanted if he didnt get anything good from this, but he couldn’t just give up so close to the end, and so, while near the bottom of his stamina again, he forces a few more solid swings out, With a CRACK, the pickaxe head has a deep crack form along the joint to the handle, but he finally finishes off the last rock of the clearing, with the few more bits of energy he has, he marks out the area for where he’ll be mining in the future, carving into the ground as much as he could. Before heading back home for some now much deserved rest…


Word count: 1068
Total word count: 3091