3 Chapter 3

(AN: From here on out, this arc will probably read like a recounting than a POV, but that's just because I want to get through it. There isn't really anything plot wise in Ark after all, so aside from some major moments, it'll basically all be like that. If that turns you off, I'd suggest just keeping the story in your library and waiting for the next arc to begin, because it will only be this one like this. Anyway, if you are fine with reading it, it'll be a very short arc anyway.)

Yusif woke up the next day before Talia did and so he silently exited the house, deciding on being cordeous to his new house/roommate. Today, he would be going exploring. There was so much out there to be found afterall. He'd also left Lulu and Joe behind. Joe was just a big ass turtle, and Lulu a dumb bird. There wasn't much they'd be able to do against giant predators.

He stood out on the beach the house was next to, watching all the early bird creatures going about their day. A rogue Dilo attempted snuck on him, but he froze it up with Primal fear and procedeed to punt it into the water.

As he walked up onto the grassy area the beach his house was on surrounded, Yusif had idle thoughts about training up a Dodo army. Of course, those were only unserious thoughts. If he was going to be making a dino-army, which he totally was, it wouldn't be comprised of small, top heavy birds.

Dismissing the dream of a dino-army for later, more thorough thought, Yusif began his journey. He first began by taming a Triceratops, naming it Joe II. Naming wasn't his strong suit, that was taming.

Now no longer using his peasant feet to walk, Yusif ventured even further, entering the forest and finding even more dinosaurs, ones he had yet to see. He spotted a Lystrosaurus, which he promised himself he would tame later, remembering they were great companions, and of course another Dilo. Joe II had promptly curb stompted it, filling his with pride and satisfaction.

In equal parts due to his Dino Bait drawback and tamer status, Yusif attracted numerous creatures, both good and bad. He was tempted to tame the friendly ones, but decided against it as he couldn't yet take care of them all, but he did want to tame them later. And as for the bad ones? Curb stompted by Joe II. He did still have the narcotics in his inventory, but like the others, he didn't yet want to tame them. Until he, or Talia, set up a more permanant base, he'd be sticking with what he had. Maybe something else that caught his eye as well.

It wasn't until an hour in his trip that he saw something that made him pause, before turning right back around. A Carnotaurus butting heads with a massive fucking bear. Yusif would have stuck around to see who the victor would be, but him and Joe II would get decimated when it was enevitably attracted to him. Better safe than sorry.

After this nearly fatal event, Yusif and his trusty mount returned to exploring the forest, encountering no other such events. For the next couple hours, he simply looked around, something that was entertaining in and of its self. Whenever he got bored of the scenery, he simply got Joe II to curbstomp a helpless dinosaur. It never failed to lift his spirits.

A few hours after noon, he utilized his Pathfinding perk to return home, taking no more than 20 minutes to do so. When he eventually made it back onto the familiar gulf, he was completely blown away.

Gone was the shabby shack that looked like it would blow over in the wind, and in its place was a huge stone manor. He expected his houses in this world would always be cubed shaped, but this one even had an intricate roof with slopes and turns. He was suitably impressed with obviously Talia's work.

Dismounting off of Joe II next to Joe the first, he made his way through the double-door, looking around in wonder. As he walked down the hallway, he heard footsteps, only for the source to make herself known a few moments later.

"Ah, Yusif! You're back." Talia exclaimed. "I, uh.. Kinda got carried away." He raised his eyebrow. "I know, understatement. It's just, it was so easy, you know? I could make an entire wall with in a 2cm long gem imbedded in my wrist, placing it with just as much ease. I couldn't settle with a small house like the one you had, no offense."

"None taken." Yusif replied, still a bit surprised. "This is really wonderful. How'd you make the carpet though?" He pointed his chin toward the red carpet in question.

She tilted her head. "What do you mean? It was apart of the Engram section. Did you not see it?"

Quickly double-checking, Yusif confirmed that yes, there were no carpets in his crafting menu. "Huh. I guess I can't make it. Shame, I was really hoping to be able to make carpets." He attributed the differences in their recipes to their different origins, Tamer and Builder. It made sense Talia would have more than him.

His female companion patted his shoulder good-naturely with an amused smile. "There there. If you really want one, I can make a few for you?"

Yusif declined her offer with regret.

-

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Yusif's third day was ultimately different from his previous, as he began it by starting the beginning of a farm outside the house. He'd first set up a dozen small crop plots against the wall, planting the various berry seeds he'd gotten from harvesting bushes.

Afterwards, he set up the foundation of a pen for creatures more suitedfor farming and harvesting resources than other areas. Yusif remembered there being a sheep-like animal on the island, one that could be tamed and harvest wool from, among other creatures. Next to it, he also set up another pen, but with individual cells as this was for the Dinos for travel or combat. There were only two sections at the moment, one for Joe, and the other for Joe II. It would be expanded with the arrival of new tames.

Done with his small farm, Yusif mounted back up on Joe II and left for the forest, planning on obtaining said new tames, now that they had a more permanant residence. Also, with Joe II, he could harvest dozens of berries at a time, settling his worries about food, for the herbivors at least. He was hoping the farm would solve it for the meat-eaters as well.

Midway through his expedition, Yusif had one more tame, and by the time he was getting ready to return to the manor, he had one more. The first was the very same Lystrosaurus he spotted before, a leathery brownish green female that he named Olive, along with his first flyer, a gray Pteranodon with the of Grey. He was already running out of ideas for names.

When he returned back home, Yusif found the foundation of multiple buildings sprouting up around, ones he couldn't yet acertain the purpose of. When he entered, Talia had graciously explained the first would eventually be a bathroom, reminding him of what he missed. Taking a shit in the sand and scooping it into the ocean was a painful memory, and he was extremely grateful. Gone were the shit-in-the-sand days.

The next one would be a cooler/food-storage room, which was also combined with another building sharing a similar purpose, being the general storage room. It would contain the materials like metal, wood, stone, etc..

The final two was a crafting room and a 'breeding' room. When asked why the second room, Talia answered with: 'When the dino's eventually fuck, do you really want to watch that? Even animals need their privacy.' Yusif silently agreed.

On the fourth day, their roles were reverse even if they could better work in their respective stations. Talia wasn't bored persay, she just wanted to actually get a good look at the island now that she wasn't being hounded by dinosaurs.

While she was out, Yusif did a bit of work on the farm, having already expanded the pin yesterday to fit Olive and Grey. The two dino's in question were fitting in quite well, seemingly liking their 'homes'. Joe II was off with Talia on her expedition, hopefully showing her the art of curbstomping.

Having hit level 26, Yusif promptly replaced all of the small crop plots with their medium counterparts and filled those with a larger variety of crops, like rockcarrots and savoroots, basically just carrots and potatoes respectively.

When he finished upgrading the farm, Yusif tried aliviating his boredom with a few different things. He tried fishing, gave up after a few minutes, went flying on Grey for a few hours, having thoroughly enjoyed it, even just simply spent a bit of time playing around with Olive and Lulu.

By the time Talia returned from her journey, Yusif had arrived at level 31, having spent the previous hour killing all the surrounding unfriendly dino's, primarily the Dilophosaurs, in order to power them up. With his Directed Growth perk, he could determine how they grew in a similar way to how you could allocate their status points in the game, except a lot more specific. In the game, you couldn't level a flying mount's movement speed, but he had no such limitation here, having solely focused on that aspect of Grey's growth. As for Olive? He focused solely on size, and it was already showing. Before, she was around half a meter tall, but now, she was just over an entire meter, even longer too.

The fifth, sixth and seventh days were each sorely lacking in action as well. Him and Talia had assumed a schedule of sorts where he would go out two days in a row, and her one, but it wasn't actually something they were enforcing. Neither of them actually had to even stay at the house, as it was fairly safe as is, with barely any dangerous creatures around.

Yusif spent the fifth and sixth days exploring and taming, bringing back many materials and tames, ones he didn't even bother naming until he returned, letting Talia do it instead. He had yet to stray from the forest, but that didn't mean there weren't plenty of potential tames. Yusif brought in another Pteranodon, a triplet of Dodos he stuck in the same pin, a Jerboa who became Talia's personal favorite, a parasaur, and finally, a ginormous diplodocus.

When Yusif showed up back at the house on the sixth day with the gentle giant, Talia had a mini panic attack but calmed down quickly. Afterall, the diplo was incredibly sweet, even playful, if a bit scary because of it's size. That is to say, Yusif had to make a whole new area that was more like an enclosure than a pin for the massive dinosaur.

His dinosaur collection/army/pets were starting to shape up. The day after tomorrow, his turn to go back out, Yusif decided he'd start branching out, taming the hostile creatures that required the knockout method rather than the passive feeding. He idly thought of taming all the Dilos that came after him as a result of his drawback, wondering if he could set up a guard around the house comprised solely of them, to then defend him from their very own species. The idea pleased him very much, and he planned on doing exactly that.

Like that, after a somewhat bland day, Yusif--and Talia had been in the world of Ark for an entire week.