(tentaive) Play It

"From what i have seen, there is so much exposed and oxidated iron that all we will have to do is break off the outer slag crust and harvest the good stuff underneath to powder it and fire it back into iron. Throw in some charcoal or wood or animal hides- which i wont be doing- and you have enough carbon to make basic steel. I would prefer to use steel for the hammers and anvils and basic iron for our actual weapons and tools, steel would need some intense heat to melt back down or repair while the iron requires a third less heat at fifteen-hundred degrees for smelting even though it would require longer periods of time in the open air.

Setting back to work slowly to better feel the differentiation in the areas of her ax face, Emma asks, What about other metals and iron to make other steel alloys? Will we be taking advantage of any we find or do we just stock it for trade?"

"It wouldn't be impossible," i say carefully as i check the developing point on my arrowhead. "Doing something like a copper-carbon steel combo would require like eleven-hundred degrees, would have to build a clay oven or dig a kind of blast furnace to blow or bellow air into for those temps, it would be a little hard to work from plates and bars but not only would the steel's hardness go up Moh's ass, but the ductility and shock absorbtion would go up as well and allow the steel to take hellacious abuse. Copper is a fundamental component in the armor plating on tanks and warships, making an ax or sword of the alloy incredibly strong- with some minor issues in the cutting edge. Only issue is getting to that point and if it would be worth it."

Emma finally finished the one incredibly sheer and dramatic side of her axe's edge by the time i had completed the thick, four-ounce arrowhead, tossing it on the boarskin to find another skinny piece of slate that would make a good arrowhead to penetrate the ribs of something like a crocodile. So i say, "When you finally get to work on the spike of that axe, the method will still be the same so dont worry about any transitions except for where the back of the head feeds into the spike. When that's done, find yourself a good piece of round slate like the one i use for a whetstone to grind notches in the top and bottom for fitting and tying onto a shaft. You can go to sleep after that if you want, or work on making spare heads to keep me company while i do arrowheads."

"You'll have to keep me talking to keep me awake," she informs me honestly. "It's probably only like nine-thirty but it feels like 1:30 in the morning right now."

Nodding my agreement even though she was not looking at me, i say, "Oh, i know the feeling, probably the only thing keeping me awake right now is how quickly we heal. Doc Harlen already gave me the sermon about time ratios, and ever since is when i started catching the spirit every time i look at something. I swear, the next time i get ahold of something in this game while I'm in good health, I'll be the only one in moderate health afterward! The other thing would be dead, by the way," i add as Emma bursts out laughing so suddenly that she actually stops in her work.

"Just stop... your joke are so bad," she groans through her quieting laughter. "They're like dad jokes but dumber. And i was actually starting to like you."

"Was that before or after being at a current loss of over a hundred pounds?" I tease with a grin, finishing the more hasily made base of this slender side arrowhead before i start on shaping the body into intself with long smooth honing strokes down the surface of my boulder.

"Maybe it was before or after the sale of your own company," She says, bursting out laughing once again at the shocked look on my usually schooled face. "At first i thought you were being polite, but you really never did think of that one, did you? You should be more careful than that, if your life story is accurate- and there is a lot i don't know- you probably dont have a lot of experience with women and what experience you do have probably isn't of the positive sort."

"You're good," i admit with a slow nod of defeat. "Almost makes me wonder about you, but i'm sure you'll turn out to be a good friend to have around then."

I was able to make five arrowheads pverall by the time Emma needed my help in showing her how to use the whetstone to grind away norrowind dips in the top and bottom of her nearly completed axhead. "And that, my fellow wounded, is how you play support," i say with a grin as she examines her newly completed tool piece. "Now just pick out a nice strong length of cane you can get a good grip on and split the top segment in the middle ad best you can to fit the head down. I split and chunk one side of the split and narrow the other so that they fit through and around each other so they help secure down on the head while widing around back and forth and tying tighter and tighter for at least three X's. Results may vary over time," i add in as reassuring a manner as i can manage.

"Then i guess i should put in some hours," is her immediate response as i hobble back to my seat, surveying the specimens arrayed about the boar skin. "You said something about a spearhead earlier, did you mean one in general or one for the crocodile?"

"I don't want you getting in close enough to through anything unless the croc is by the rim and not the islet," i say at first as she picks out what i had originally imagined as a hatchet head. Then, interested to see what she had in mind, i say, "But on that possibility, by all means, prep a spear for the crocodile. If you don't get the chance to use it, i definitely will. Of course, after you literally and figuratively handle that ax."

Emma never needed my help after following my verbal directions, finding her own way similar to mine to clasp the cane over the top of the axhead while tying it, but she was slow about it which allowed me to make a third quarter-pound impact arrowheads to match the three long, slender penetration arrowheads before i finally set about making a new spear. Coming to the decision that i could always find more gems in similar places to the the stones these had come from, i acquire my large citrine and amethyst prisms to pick between the weaker of the two for this endeavor before settling on the citrine prism to start carefully striking and grinding out small flakes from around the point to me a somewhat rounded but dramatic and thin guillotine-like point that would hopefully drive between and through layers of keratin plating. Notching the sides of the base of the prism in prep for heading on a spear, i pick out the tapering body of an adult cane tree to chop free and then split the end segment after trimming it down and sitting back down at my boulder.

"You'll notice i trimmed the top segment down to more of a socket with only an inch or two of seating," i call out to Emma as she seems to slow in her work on the broad bottomed spearhead she was working on, waking her up enough to get back to work slowly while watching me. "That's because you want more blade than shaft for penetration purposes- the prongs will get in the way the closer they are to the point- and the little bit that's left we can loop and tie tight against the flat sides of the spearhead to minimize them."

"I was actually going for a boar spear," she says after stopping to stretch and loose a roar of a yawn. "I was going to grind the point and sides down to, like, a really big trowel or narrow spare and these two bottom corners would get eaten inward to a spiky crosspiece kind of like a glaive or lance. This way, if one of us throw it, it's big enough that from the rim it should sink in a few inches and either break off or start to. During the fight, you could draw what's left of it and use it to keep it busy or something."

"Ooh... preemptive reload, very nice," i commend her with an appreciative nod. "Kind of like my dart-tips. I can't pull em out to reuse them but once they're in it'd take sentience to outlive me so i know i get my kill. They're gifts that just keep giving," i add at last when she just gives me a tired look.

"I'm just trying to make sure you get out alive, and I'm tired," she says with a small laugh and shake of her head. "Wonder what the others are up to?"

Giving the firepit a measureing look to see that the once bright coals were starting to die down, i get up and start smashing and breaking up old dead wood and small sticks to cast randomly about the fire while saying, "I honestly don't remember enough about what they others were or are up to for me to make a guess, but i would say that anybody who already had tools has a functioning raft and and is working on supplies and anybody who didnt have tools has them now and spent what twilight they had gathering supplies. So, they're doing what we're doing which mean's we're all just getting our shit together."

"You need to get your shit together," she says tiredly, stopping to break with a citrus fruit and the remains of her earlier coconut. "You almost let the fire go out and the meat rot halfway through cooking. Then where would be? Starving half to death as we look for that big ugly lizard."

"You're getting cranky, are you about ready to call it a night?" I ask as i circle the fire with a shirtful of crumbled wood and bark and sticks that i cast more carefully inward while the first stuff i had already tossed smokes and smolders healthily. "I was just going to make that amethyst piece into another dagger after loading up the fire with some bigger stuff in a minute, then when I'm done with the dagger I can lower the rack and flip the meat before going to bed. If you want, you can go ahead and get settled wherever and i can just set up shop on the other side of the fire."

"I would if i could, but I wouldn't be able to get to sleep over the sound of you grinding rocks together," she says quickly, then probably more honestly with a wicked grin. "Plus, no matter how cute and funny you try to be, i can't go to sleep before a guy. Sorry."

Not once had it occurred to me that my presense would put her in an awkward position beyond my own injuries, but there it was right in front of me making me turn very warn and probably red as well in the face. "Now, i suddenly realize that i should have let the other female candidate come to your aid. Never really considered the boy-girl thing, as smart as i might be, just knew i was either the closest or second closest to your island, you had a big baddy you wanted help with, and i wanted to get at your island's clay resources. Well, i suppose i will just stop short with the dagger and start with loading up the fire and lowering the rack. Should only take a nice carpet of two layers of broken down wood to finish cooking the meat while we sleep- and we can just warm what we eat back up again in the morning. Sound good?"

"Sounds amazing, but let me help with the wood," she says, climbing to her feet slowly and stretching once again. "Sooner this gets done, the sooner we can get to sleep, and when we log back in we can always finish these tools like we planned with the bow and arrows. Let's hurry."

For somebody who was one the verge of passing out and dropping her work, Emma moved with surprising vigor breaking dead limbs into short logs and then crushing them up with a bludgeon of stronger wood as i scattered my own load out over the fire. Not more than a few minutes later, the giant bed of coals was aglow with growing embers and short flickers of slame as the thinner pieces of smashed wood ignited brifely before smoldering away under the surrounding layers of wood. Now came the precarious task of lowering the rack onto its three-foot pegs and using lengths of cane split at the ends to flip the portioned meats before the wood we added could actually catch fire underneath the previously cooked sides.

The racks of ribs and whole from leg portions took both of us from either side to flip over as the wood finally began to burn in full with a scattered sheet of hungry orange and yellow flames, but we still managed to flip them in time to keep the fire from further searing the already dried bottom sides of the meat. "The fire will help speed dry the topsides we just flipped and the coals from so low and overnight will help dry and preserve the meat inside the seared outsides. It'll be a little tough, but the fillet sheets should last at least a week and constitute most of a meal on their own with fruits or whatever veggies like tuberous roots and blah that we can find to supplement nutritional values. Good night, damsel in distress," i add as i start piling and shaping sand on the opposite side of the fire from Emma with my boarskin.

"Good knight, dull-armored knight," she calls back with a laugh in her voice.

* * *

We were not the fire to log out of the game, but we made up the first half to log out of the game where Emma immediately went into gossip mode with some of the other girls telling them about scavenging supplies and materials with her injury. She kept her story in chronological order of her day, almost ignoring questions about who showed up to rescue her and how everything went down with only one speculation on the obvious fact that we logged out of the game at the same time. She was actually getting pretty close to nightfall as she came to starting her fire with the sun only just nearing the top of the volcano by the time the others started arriving, several of them within only a minute or two of one another until we were all waiting on Harold to come to on his operating table.

By the time she was done bragging to everybody about the boar we would be having for breakfast as we finished our tools and weapons so that the others could start sharing their own achievements, i take some comfort in the fact that Emma kept my actual belongings like weapons and jewelry quiet while trying to get the professor's attention from where he stood watching everybody from beside the open doorway only for him to shrug when i finally got it. Then, only a few minutes later, Harold finally came to and seemed to be rushing to be free of the table and cleared by the technicians.

When he was finally able to come over and join us, he firmly states, "I have made it to iron island, anyone capable should join me at my camp. I will probably be off at another island gathering supplies, but feel free to help yourselves to the food i have at camp when you arrive, There is a primitive spear for everybody and several hatchets that i was able to craft for anyone who does not already have one- municipal purpose so return when done if they can still be used. I advise you take your spears even if you don't need them and head to the nearest neighboring island- that's where i am probably hunting and gathering if nobody was at camp."

There it was, an open challenge to the entire beta team to overachieve and leave their starting islands early to catch up with the team leader who had bested all of us in completing his necessary goals and jumping ahead of everybody else. It was good to know he was prioritizing the gathering of resources and food over mining oxide with his head start, at least. Before i could report my and Emma's status to the team leader, however, he looks dead at me and says, "Zai and Emma, would the two of you mind staying behind at your clay island farming clay until the third day when i can join you to help with transport?"

"Sure," is my swift and simple response when Emma starts to stammer a protest. "Due to her injury, Emma should probably travel on ahead to iron island with the group once we have taken out her croc. She can rest and heal there, i don't mind staying behind and putting in the extra work. Besides, i know the quality of clay we need and how to fire it to sustain the heat and surrounding pressures of smelting"

"Zai-" Emma starts to argue, having yet to tell anyone any actual information about me.

"Zai is severely wounded, at risk of an infection in fact," Professor Harlen interjects into the conversation. "You do not need to jump ship and head over during the next session, his hands will be mostly healed and his leg will have... 'reset itself'... by the time you all log back in and i believe they have already put together a sufficient strategy for dealing with Emma's tutorial threat and i honestly would love to collect the data on their crippled combat. The workload of gathering clay, however, would be beyond him on his own because of the terrain itself and his injury- my main reason for wanting to see the fighting- so it would be advisable for you to join them at their island about an hour or so before the sets on the volcano. On the third day, the three of you can get everything ready to set out and do some last minute gathering if necessary."

"Copy that, Professor," Harold says before i can finish glaring at the professor. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starving!"

"Copy that, Harold," Professor Harlen acknowledges, gesturing to those closest to him to start leaving the room. "Everybody has just experienced at least twelve grueling hours of psychological exhaustion, I'm sure everybody would like something to eat to help settle back in reality. As well, this is supper-slash-dinner so that means this is the last meal of the day and we still have one more session to go through before bed time. If anybody thinks they will be hungry after they log out, you can place an extra order for a snack or whatever you would like to eat before bed."

The trip to the cafeteria was much faster this time as everybody talked freely among themselves or peppered the professor with a constant barrage of questions until everybody was finally seated and my preordered meal was on its way. Everybody was actually doing fairly well, everybody had completed shelters, stockpiles, and some form of weapon be it spear or sturdy ax as well as fires most of the way around the group. Only two people besides Harold and I had rafts ready to hit the water, but almost everybody had already completed frames to build their rafts from.

I placed an order for an extra tray of eel and cucumber sushi and a surprise fruit smoothie before we started heading back up to the OR, but i could tell from the way that conversation had died down that some of the others were getting tired and worn out from their psychologically extended days while the rest were getting anxious to get back into the game. I was somewhere between the two wondering what our dorm rooms were like and whether or not i would die while fighting the crocodile.

As we were entering the operating room, however, Professor Harlen stops us to say, "I believe i earlier told you all that day two of the grace period was magic day, if so i am sorry to inform you that because of the headstarting going on we decided to push last session's prep to this session so tomorrow's session will be magic day. Thank you for bearing with us."