Chapter 12: Searching for a Base

When the sun broke through in the trees in the morning Rosario began his descent down to the forest floor. Once down on solid ground he took the snake out of the necklace and butchered it. As he was sitting eating some of the snake meat he had cooked over a small fire Rosario absorbed the essence from the snake. He expected his essence to jump up 15 points like it had before however after he finished absorbing the essence and took a look he found a surprise.

[Level 0 (65/100)]

There was an extra 5 essence that he didn't expect to be there. Figuring out that he got twenty from the snake Rosario tried redoing the math in his head to figure out how much essence from each animal he was getting but he couldn't figure it out. He figured he definitely must be getting different amounts for each animal, he just had to figure out how the different amounts were calculated.

Finishing his meal and giving up on figuring out his essence intake for the time being, Rosario hefted his spear and began his journey.

Again, his journey was uneventful for the whole morning, about an hour after he had stopped eating some dried rations and water for lunch Rosario broke from the forest and exited the tree line. In front of him was about a mile of open field that began to lead up to a gentle slope heading into the mountain towering above him. Dotted around the field were boulders of all different sizes some as big as a house while some others were just a couple inches. From what he could tell these boulders and rocks must have tumbled down the mountain side and had come to rest in this peaceful pasture. Wanting to get up on part of the slope Rosario began his trek through the waist high grass that made up the meadow.

It didn't take him long to get across the meadow and Rosario began his climb up the side of the mountain. Now that he was closer Rosario could see that the bottom of the mountain was very gradual with smaller hills that led to false peaks. Walking parallel to the mountains Rosario kept his eye out for a good spot to create a base of sorts.

Rosario had trekked along the mountainside the rest of the day and just before it became fully dark he had come across a few mountain goats. One had decided to be an asshole and charged at him trying to headbutt him. A quick spear jab into its chest put a stop to the goats' charge and gave Rosario another fresh meal for dinner. After turning one goat into a shish kabob the others all fled away not wanting to meet the same fate.

Deciding to call it a night and continue his search in the morning Rosario made his way to the tree line where he made a campfire and ate some dinner before climbing another tree and settling in for the night. After getting settled in Rosario checked his message for the goat.

[Killed: Snub Horn Goat. Evo 0, Level 2]

Taking out the essence stone Rosario absorbed the stored essence into his body, this time he definitely felt it filling up something in his body. Taking a look at his new essence amount his confusion was seen clearly on his face as the question of how much essence he got from each animal killed was brought to the forefront of his mind again.

[Level 0 (75/100)]

This time his essence had only increased by ten. Thinking back to the amount of essence he received so far he started doing the math. Eventually he fell asleep as he sat in the tree thinking about how much essence is obtained with each kill.

Rosario woke to the pre-dawn light, knowing that the day had already started he just didn't see it because the mountain was blocking the sun for the morning till it got high enough in the sky to crest the mountain.

As he took a few swigs of water and ate some dried jerky or breakfast he thought about the conclusion he came to last night with the essence. After going through the amounts, he had received he concluded that he gets a different amount per animal based on the animal's level. From what he can tell he gets five essence per level the animal is when he kills it. The boar was level three and he got fifteen essence. The goat was level two and he received ten essence, he had absorbed the buck and alligator's essences together, but he was confident that he didn't get fifteen for each but had actually gained ten for the buck and twenty for the alligator.

To confirm his theory, he figured he could kill a level five animal and should be able to reach 100/100 for his essence and would increase his level. Thinking about what would happen when he leveled up he began his journey anew as he began walking along the mountain ring. After a couple of hours into his journey Rosario started noticing that to his right where there was a gentle slope into the forest was now becoming steeper and steeper as he began moving higher and higher. Continuing to plod along he kept getting higher and higher but no matter how high he started getting he kept the forest in sight to his right.

As Rosario ascended further and further up the slope he was able to see more and more of the forest he had just come out of. He worked his way up the gentle slope for a few hours, not having to be too mindful of where he placed his feet as the way was pretty clear. Only a boulder that had tumbled and come to rest sat here or there. Finally, he started to hear a constant rumbling in the distance, looking around he noticed that at this point he was a good hundred feet up from the forest below him. Continuing to head towards the distance rumbling the ground he was hiking finally began to even out.

Eventually he walked out onto a plateau. The plateau was not a perfect square as it looked naturally formed but it was pretty close to being square. On his right was the sheer cliff that led to a hundred-foot fall to the forest below, to his left was about two miles worth of open rocky ground somewhat even across it, that lead to another sheer cliff face that went up another fifty feet, till it started the gradual incline that was seen on mountains usually. The area spread ahead of him around two and a half miles till he couldn't see further as it looked like it crested and went down again, possibly rejoining the forest further along. A third of the way into the plateau was a raging river that was so crystal clear it looked like the glacier water from earth, it originated from higher in the mountain and cascaded down the fifty-foot cliff to his left, he watched as the water flowed across the plateau and over the edge, on his right, into the forest below. Wandering around the plateau for a couple of hours Rosario discovered the water was freezing cold and really deep, thinking he had to find a way over it eventually he walked to the edge of the cliff and looked over the forest below.

He could see clearly across the whole area, finally confirming his suspicions that he had when he had first climbed the tall tree he could now clearly see that he was inside a ring of mountains. From what he could see it was an unbroken ring of mountains, in fact if he was being honest it looked like he was almost in a crater of some sorts. The way the mountains looked and how the land seemed to slope downwards towards the center of the ring of mountains where it seemed a lake was formed. It looked eerily like a bowl, if he took away the water and trees it would look exactly like one of the craters that he had seen pictures of on the moon.

Putting his thoughts aside that he got placed into a crater, Rosario looked over the entire Valley spread out below him. The valley was about forty miles in diameter, on the side closest to him currently was a massive colorful forest that covered half of the circular valley. He was in the middle of the forest and could see that it mainly spread back the way he had come. If he had a compass and centered it with the sun rising in the east and setting in the west then he would say he was standing on the cliff edge in a southeastern point of the ring of mountains. To his right would be east and to his left would be due south. The forest below him spread across the valley from the south to the north and covered the entire east side of the valley. In the center of the valley sat a large lake that looked to be a couple miles wide and looked like it was shaped somewhat like a bean. He could see multiple rivers leading to the lake, feeding it from the runoff from the surrounding mountains. Stretching across the western side of the valley was a vast plain with rolling hills in some areas and completely flat windblown fields in other parts. Scattered throughout the plains were cops of trees and smaller forests if you could even call them that.

Turning back around and glancing behind him at the open plateau Rosario decided that this would be where he made his first base. It was defensible if they built here and had fresh water that would be next to impossible to cut him off from. The view over the entire valley was great and if he needed wood it was only a couple hours hike down the slope of the mountain to get to the trees and even then he was sure they could make some kind of pulley to bring them up the cliff face.