5 Chapter 5

Following the events of the artifact acquisition, things started changing once again. Like Talia suggested he do, Yusif delved into the ocean depths not long after and began the process of harvesting its resources and taming its beasts. With the arrival of oil, the crafter of the two could upgrade their base and tools to the next level. Even modern weaponry was possible now.

Yusif started a new branch of his 'army', building a pin in the ocean not far from the base in which he kept all of the new oceanic creatures he tamed. Talia stilled refused to go anywhere farther than knee deep, but he made do.

The farm and base continued to grow, as did everything else. With his directed growth perk, Yusif could make his tames stronger than their wild counterparts could ever hope to be, and that was exactly what he did. He would breed them, hatch them and grow them. It was a simple process, but it worked better than anything else could.

Contrary to what was expected, Yusif took his time when collecting the various artifacts over the island, hoping to stall for time. He knew that after he collected them, the only thing left to do would be kill the bosses and that would be it. There wasn't much for plot when it came to Ark, and Yusif hoped to stall, if only to help his boredom, so he would only explore a cave every few months.

To pass the time, Yusif did practically anything he could on the island, from taming even the most unique creatures, to finding the rarest items. He practiced any skill he would need in the future, fighting some of the nastier dinosaurs with his barehands. With his high level and stats, he could even take on some of the larger ones. Fighting like that was one of the things that help alleviate his boredom.

An obvious thing that ended up happening over the years was Talia and Yusif hooking up. It happened not long after they returned, and amounted to: 'Hey, wanna hook up?' and 'Sure, why not.' It wasn't a loveless relationship, but when there were two young and healthy humans by themselves on an island with almost nothing to do when it came to entertainment, what were they do but have sex regularly.

A few years into their relationship, Yusif also ended up revealing his status as a jumper, though he only told her about him going to different worlds. It didn't seem like a very good idea to tell her he was the reason she had to leave behind the life she very likely had. It came up in a conversation where Talia asked if they wanted children--she didn't know if they were obligated to populate the island, them being the only two humans and all-- but Yusif obviously knew if they had any, they wouldn't grow up in a stable environment and so he told her as much. There was much confusion and drama involved, but it ultimately ended with acceptance.

And now, nearly 7 years after his first day in this world, Yusif and Talia sat on the back of a giant wyvern while surrounded by even larger Rexes and Giganotaurus', each bred and grown to perfection with damage, health and size at the forefront. The entire group was positioned on the platform underneath the green obelisk, about to fight the first of 3 bosses, the Broodmother Lysrix.

"You got everything?" Talia asked.

Yusif nodded. "Hundreds of medical brews, hundreds of bullets, a few dozen grenades. Enough food and water to last half a year. Forgot anything?"

"Probably, but I'm sure we're fine." Talia nervously chuckled. "You really think we can handle this? I know we're probably fine, better safe than sorry though.."

Patting the wyvern they were sitting on the back of, Yusif answered, "We'll be fine. Joe V and I will protect you." His naming sense obviously improved over the years.

He jumped off the back of the dinosaur, tanking the over 10 meter tall fall with a slight bend of his knees. Making his way over to the console, Yusif began inserting the artifacts and materials inside needed to fight the boss and promptly started the battle without giving any room for regret. With one more jump, he returned to his spot on the back of Joe V behind Talia.

"Well." He said. "Here we go. Regrets can come later."

Talia shook her head exasperatedly. "You say that like we would be able to regret it. If they die, we die."

"They're not dying. We'll be fine, seriously."

The forcefield that began surrounding them reached its climax, covering all the dinosaurs and humans and promptly transported them to the arena. They were now inside a massive cavern, littered with webs and orange egg-like protrusions, with a giant spider fit for a lair of this size rapidly shooting out smaller, but still large spiders from its backside. It was sight that made both Talia and Yusif shiver in disgust.

With a simple whistle from Yusif, every dinosaur but Joe V shot into action, stomping towards the massive spider which looked small when next to them. What followed was a very anti-climatic battle.

Like Yusif was expecting, the tames with their huge stature, health and damage absolutely shredded the Broodmother and it's children. It didn't even last for a minute before it was dead, surrounded by eager-looking dinosaurs waiting to be praised like a child.

Hopping off the back of Joe V, the tamer and builder walked over to the corpse-- the latter somewhat hesitant to do so. Even in death, it was a really gross thing to look at.

"That was.. Really easy." Talia coughed into her hand. "Why was that so easy? We needed all the artifacts to summon it, and it ended up being like that? I really shouldn't be, but I'm kind of disappointed."

Yusif patted the side of one of the larger Rexes, cooing and saying "Well, it's all thanks to these bad boys! I brought them up to as perfect as possible, you know? They were made for this. You here that guys? It's all thanks to you."

The massive beasts all preened at the attention, even if they had no clue what he was saying. "Heh, suckers."

"So. Aside from bragging rights to the nonexistent other people on the island, why exactly did we go through the hassle of killing it?" Talia questioned.

Yusif held his hand out, saying "Oh, you'll be very glad we did. It was all for this," In his hand appeared a sheet of some gray material with crisscrossing patterns that released waves on turquoise energy. "Check your engrams. This stuff is the key."

Talia did as he said and held up her wrist. "This.. Holy shit. Tek? This is incredible! A fucking rail gun? Holy shit." She devolved into a mumbling mess, scrolling through the interface like it would disappear the moment she looked away.

"Yeah. And this stuff?" Yusif explained. "Element? We get it from the bosses, along with the engrams. We'll have to kill the other two before we can make it all, but it'll be worth it, and I doubt they'll be much more difficult than this fight." Talia absentmindedly nodded, still scrolling away.

While she continued to do that, Yusif harvested everything he could form the bosses corpse before the group of dinosaur and human were teleported out, returning back to where they were before.

On the back of Joe V, they returned to their base with the tames in toe, and Talia promptly got to work on experimentation. Within a few days, she already used all the element they received from the Broodmother, and so they went ahead and fought the other two bosses, the Megapithecus and the Dragon.

Whenever they ran out again, it was as simple as fighting them again. They were respawnable afterall.

With the addition of element, they finally had access to the final and best tier of tools and structures available, Tek. Needless to say, it all saw a total makeover, with the base being almost completely redone. Talia kitted each of them out with customized Tek armor and tools, even making a few additions to them herself. For the armor, she implemented a cloaking device similar to the rockdrake, and to take it further, made a function that let it change appearances, claiming the original one was tacky.

The final three years passed in a similar way to the past seven, except they basically took over the entire island. Teleporters were put in every important place, extra 'back-up' bases were made, and backups for those backups. Yusif continued to work on whatever he could, but most of the things he wanted to, were already long done and continuing to do so would have been counterproductive. And so, Yusif expanded even further, going back to practicing his skills.

He obviously had no teachings, but Yusif practiced fighting for at least a few hours a day. His favorite weapon to use over this time became the Tek Claws, a weapon pair that allowed him to hit above his weight class by increasing his power and attack speed every time he landed a successful hit, making a chain that could continue endlessly. Endlessly until the opponent eventually died.

With his near constant fighting, his level skyrocketed, passing 200 by the time there was only a year left. The stats Yusif leveled didn't change, basically only being health, stamina, speed, carrying weight and physical damage.

In that last year, Yusif tried to spend more time relaxing, training calmer skills and hanging out with Talia and the tames. They had a lot of those afterall, even taming the Megapithacus and Dragon. The two of them refused to tame the Broodmother. He would occasionally grow his forces even more, but it was basically useless at this point. There were literally thousands of dinosaurs in pins, even more in cryopods. His dinosaur army had finally seen fruition.

His days of relaxing made the passing of time almost unnoticeable, and so, one day when Yusif didn't wake up on his bed, but rather on a cold concrete floor, he was a tad bit confused on where he was.