Hands of Fate - Survivors of Flight AA214

Chapter 18

Orion - Day 5 of Landing

Population of Thornhill - 12

The harder you worked, the more it distracted you from worries like, "Will I ever get back home?" or "I just want to sleep on a comfortable mattress." As joyous as the reunion of the triplets with their parents was for the group, it meant there were three more mouths to feed, shelter, and protect in camp. The children could only help with basic tasks like boiling water and foraging. Marek and Roza tried to minimize their burden, having them fetch fresh water and make salt from seawater. However, making kids do hard labor was something most of us couldn't stomach, and they didn't have the attention span for it anyway.

As for working hard, we piled the workload on ourselves. Before Bianca went to bed, she ordered Slate, her builder golem, to dig a huge hole and cut up a lot of trees into planks. When we woke up, another sizable chunk of forested land was cleared, and the growing stockpile was filled with logs, sticks, and planks for us to use. The hole itself was in between the river and our beachfront camp, marking our expansion from the beach shelter closer to the inland river. The hole was for our next project: an outhouse, with some of the newly created planks and logs going toward its construction. Anika suggested we leave a large clay pot in the outhouse for people who wanted to donate their urine to create ammonia, a practical suggestion despite our initial reaction of disgust. Marek oversaw the operation, and without the ability to craft or forge nails yet, he used a Japanese technique of carpentry called miyadaiku, with Bianca and Slate’s Walking Sawmill following his instructions for the simpler kigumi hinges and joints.

When Bianca wasn't advising Slate on Marek's instructions, she was busy making pottery, including clay lanterns, small lidded pots, cups, and bowls, to prepare for the wave of arrivals.

Ethan and Anika were busy making lime, ash, and charcoal all day. The charcoal would help create signs, a makeshift water filter, and fuel. Anika told me lime was crucial for starting a civilization and would be needed right away for the outhouse. Roza took over watching the children, having them play near her, or performing simple tasks like harvesting flax. My Crafting card skill was coming along nicely, and I was busy trying to make a spinning wheel with Slate cutting the pieces I needed and Anika advising. Herman was fishing, and we ate a bream for breakfast that he caught early in the morning.

Two distractions I had to deal with were Alex pestering me to go to the dungeon and my younger brother brooding. Cass was sullen when he learned of Alex’s Hero class and was restless to get a class himself. I paused the creation of my spinning wheel to talk to Cass, who was glaring at me while I worked.

“Why aren’t you playing or hanging with the other kids?” I asked.

“You promised me you’d make me a weapon,” Cass said, his arms crossed.

“I’ve been busy—”

“You always say that,” Cass interrupted.

“Rion, can we go to the dungeon now?” Alex interrupted before I could respond to Cass.

“I have a lot to do around the base, and you should probably help out too,” I responded, digging my knife into the disc of wood without looking up to meet Alex and Cass’s disappointment.

“Forget that, we can get clothes in the dungeon,” Alex insisted.

“I can go with you,” Cass brandished his knife, as threatening as a kitten with it.

“Cass, you promised me you wouldn’t go in the dungeon until I think you are ready. On your mother’s soul, remember,” I said, not bothering to look up as I fixated on how to finish the wheel.

The two would bother me for hours if I didn’t keep them busy, so I thought of ways to distract them.

“Alex, you remember where that boar was that gored you?” I asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“I want you to hunt it down for me. Think of it like a quest. You get me a boar, and after I cook it, we can go into the dungeon.”

“Oh sweet. I was waiting to get payback on that little piggy,” Alex smiled, unsheathed his sword, and ran for the woods.

While Alex was gone, I paused work on the spinning wheel and grabbed a bunch of rope that was previously made by Alex and Cass. Cass watched me as I worked. I tied ropes together to form a long piece of rope and used Cass’s outstretched wingspan to model the length. In the middle of the wingspan-sized rope, I interlaced more rope together to form a pocket. On the ends of the long rope, I tied knots to form handles.

I presented it to Cass, and he said with wide eyes, “Is this what I think it is?”

“Yep. It’s a sling. Put a rock in the pocket, hold both ends of the rope, and swing it.”

Rope Sling - D

10% more effective against non-humans

Cass’s eyes marveled at the weapon, and he picked out a rock from his many pockets to load it. We made our way to a clearing away from the stockpile before a row of trees to use as target practice. His first few shots failed, and I worried he would hurt himself before he got some distance and cracking shots in.

“This is so awesome,” Cass said, snapping the sling forward and missing a tree wide.

“I’ll make you a deal. If you get a class and get to level 10 in that class, I’ll take you down to the dungeon, okay?” I said. He nodded furiously and kept slinging away, hoping one sling would get him the class he wanted. I went back to work on the spinning wheel.

Even with my high-level Crafting skills, the work on the spinning wheel was rough, and I couldn’t finish it before another distraction came. Alex returned sooner than expected, dragging the carcass of a slain boar with its head hacked to pieces. The animal had long tusks, fluffy gray fur, which I thought would be perfect for yarn, and thick bark-like hide on its legs. It resembled a miniature version of a wholly mammoth, I thought. It didn't seem to put up much resistance against Alex in round two, with his newly acquired skills.

I started dressing the animal, harvesting what I could from it. Most of the meat was butchered and ruined before I even started to skin it, but I sliced off pieces of shoulder meat and shanks to put into a stew of chopped wild onions and potatoes to slow cook. From the meat came long tendons, sinew, and guts, which I saved for crafting string and other lines. My main prize from the hog was the belly and the skin, which I started to render the fat from. I saved the fat in a lidded clay pot, which would be useful later for making soap and cooking. The leftovers of the fat rendering presented us with chicharrones and fried hog belly sprinkled with salt, which we all ate except Anika. She wasn’t Muslim but said she would only eat pork as a last resort.

Fried Wild Boar Fat - D

Boar Padding - 10% resistance against piercing and slashing attacks for 3 hours

With my tasks done and dinner of boar stew on slow cook, I made my preparations to leave with Alex for the dungeon. I wrapped some cracklings in a leaf and stuffed it in my pocket. My next goal was to find backpacks or bags in the dungeon. Anika and Ethan were working on a compass, a floating piece of magnet in a clay bowl of water.

“Great idea,” I said, staring in the direction the magnet was pointing. The river and hills lay somewhere in the Northwest while the dungeon cave was somewhere to the East.

“We’re going to make signs next. We’ll start mapping this area, figuring out when passengers arrive, and making this whole process a lot easier,” Ethan said, wiping his glasses on his now-stained shirt.

“I rendered some fat. It’s in a jar in the stockpile. I think we’re going to need to make a livestock pen soon and a warehouse. If we can capture some boar piglets, we can start domesticating them. They’ll be useful for fat and to eat up our garbage,” I said.

“That’s wonderful, I can finally make soap with the fat. I’ll go find something aromatic in the forest to give the soap some spice. Do you have any ideas?” Anika asked.

“The zest from those citrus fruits we had last night might be good. I think I saw some peppermint near the river as well.”

“You’re going dungeon diving, right? Try to find some bags or any kind of storage equipment. Bags, backpacks, hell, if you can even lug a chest back here that’d be great,” Ethan suggested.

“We’re going to bring back everything, my dude,” Alex said. “This dungeon will save us. We won’t have to work this hard anymore.”

Ethan, Anika, and I all exchanged a blank look.

“Just don’t get hurt,” Anika warned.

“Make sure Cass doesn’t follow us or get lost,” I said, waving goodbye as we marched to the dungeon.

Leaderboard of Thornhill Dungeons

Alex Ryder - Floor 1

Orion Sterling - Floor 1

Julian Zajac - Floor 1

Marek Zajac - Floor 1

Natalia Zajac - Floor 1

Both of us looked at the dungeon information card before entering. Just as Alex was about to open the door, I held him back and took a quick inventory. I had a total of six knives, two of which were newly crafted. One was a non-throwing copper long knife, my main weapon, looted from my first dungeon run but mostly used for cooking since then. Aside from that, I had some rope, which I thought might be useful, and in my pockets, my leaf bundle of boar cracklings.

Checking over my cards, I noticed my Pottery skill card had degraded and was now missing from my inventory. It’s been a while since I did any pottery, so it made sense that you couldn’t keep every skill you learned.

Cook Class - 6

Forage - 3

Highlight Plants

Tracking - 3

Track Detective

Crafting - 2

Throwing Weapons - 3

Deadly Shot

Firewielding - 1

Path of the Dagger - 1

Stealth - 1

“I think we should do a sneak-and-rush approach. It’s the best way to utilize my skills,” I said to Alex.

“What? We don’t need to pussyfoot around some rats,” Alex scoffed.

“It’s the best way we can avoid as much damage as possible. You don’t want the dungeon to close, do you?” I asked.

“No,” Alex frowned and agreed.

“You’ll still get some blows in. I’ll sneak attack them, and you charge in with the finishing blow when they realize where the attacks are coming from,” I said.

The first floor of the dungeon had the same mossy stone walls and maze-like corridors as before, but the layout had completely changed. Rooms had shifted, and paths we took before now led to unexplored areas. A giant rat roamed the halls ahead of us, and Alex and I hid behind stone pillars as it walked past. When the shadow of the rat grew faint, I approached the end of the hall, peeked around the corner to where the rat patrolled, and looked back at Alex to confirm. I nodded, then activated my Deadly Shot skill, throwing one of my knives at the back of the creature’s head and landing a critical strike. It bucked and let out a terrible screech, prompting Alex to charge forward. When the creature turned around, it reared up, and Alex thrust his copper sword into its belly. I hesitated to throw another knife since Alex blocked my view, but he pulled out his sword and slashed it diagonally across the rat’s face, cutting its throat and spraying blood over his new armor, plaid shirt, and the stone wall.

Alex trudged over, breathing hard. I asked if he was okay, and he gave me a thumbs up, flashing his newly leveled Path of the Sword skill, now at 2.

The chest that the rat was guarding was now free to loot. When opened, it revealed a basic bronze mace. Feeling it wasteful to leave weapons behind, I took the mace and used it as a walking stick. We would split the coins bringing my total to 5 jester coins.

After fumbling through corridors, dead ends, and empty rooms, we discovered little loot. No leather bags, no boxes, not even discarded candle holders. In the main hall, where the final maze led, stood a rat that seemed to be the alpha of the one we had slain earlier.

Alex took the initiative to charge at what we considered the boss of the floor. Not wanting him to have all the credit for the kill, I sidestepped and used my Deadly Shot skill, landing a critical hit on the rat's chest but not a fatal one. The rat charged forward, mashing its giant incisors against Alex’s sword. The impact drove Alex back, and I snuck behind the rat, stabbing it in the back. It reared again, throwing me against a stone wall. Before it could respond to my backstab, Alex slashed its front right leg off, and another swing of his sword finally killed the giant rat.

With its death, my Stealth and Path of the Knife skills leveled up to 2, though my Throwing Weapons skill remained the same. The first few levels of skills were easy to get, but higher levels would require tougher opponents. Both of us stood there for a minute to catch our breath. I recovered first and started skinning the giant rat, planning to take the pelt back to camp. A fog came over my head, and I bent over after my work was done.

Alex looted the final treasure chest and handed me a few gold coins bringing my total to 6 jester coins.

“What was in it?” I asked.

He showed me his new leather boots. I glanced behind him to see his discarded Air Forces and said, “You should take those back. You never know when you need another pair of shoes. I doubt this world has any places that sell Nikes.”

“I’m leaving it all behind. All of my old self,” Alex said, sheathing his sword. “I was reborn here, Rion.”

“Pretty speech, but it might make a good hand-me-down. Just take them. We have to prove we aren’t here just to level up,” I said.

Dragging the giant rolled-up piece of rat skin, we reached the final stairs of this level. One stair led down into darkness, the other up to light. I checked my food buff duration to see that we still had some time before nightfall. Without asking, Alex ventured down into the darkness, and I followed behind him.

The next floor of the dungeon had off-white stone walls stained with yellow spots. The hallways were paved with withered stone tiles instead of dirt, and stairways within the dungeon created a multi-level maze that didn't lead out or complete the floor. Most of the dungeon consisted of long, empty stone hallways leading to grand chambers with cells of black iron bars, though no cell doors were installed. As we entered, the door behind us glowed with light, resembling an exit sign.

Once again, I advised Alex to proceed cautiously and stealthily. Passing through a stone archway that led to a stairway down, we entered more dungeon hallways filled with cells. Yellow eyes glowed in the dark areas beyond the reach of the light, several blinking from their open cells. A putrid smell of rotten eggs permeated the air, and the floor was damp with an unknown liquid.

Crouching behind the entrance, we finally spotted our first enemies on the floor as they stepped out of the shadows into the hallway's light. Two more joined them. These creatures had large, pointy ears resembling green butterfly wings, and their double-lidded eyes were like that of reptiles. They stood about four feet tall, with three-digit legs and feet that ended in velociraptor-like claws

The three gremlins, or goblin-like creatures, chittered amongst themselves, sensing something awry. As they caught the glint of light from my Deadly Shot skill card, one dodged the knife aimed at its eyes. Cursing, I swiftly threw another knife, striking the gremlin on the left in the thigh. Behind us, more chittering echoed from the room we came from, signaling reinforcements. We were going to pincered on the stairway.

All three gremlins charged toward the stairwell. Using my mace for its longer reach, I swung and smashed the closest one that lunged with its vicious talons. Meanwhile, Alex was fending off another trio of gremlins behind me. The cramped quarters were challenging for my abilities; swinging wildly with my weaker hand gripping the mace, I used my left hand to fend off a gremlin trying to grab at my feet with a knife.

Amidst the chaos of flesh tearing and weapons clashing against stone, I dropped the ratskin to gain more flexibility in my movements.

For the first time, I felt true terror. This wasn’t like fighting the rats; this was desperate. We were outnumbered, cornered, and unable to escape. The dungeon gave you the thrill of sky diving, but now it felt like my chute wouldn't open. The only way forward was to keep fighting. I heard Alex cry out in pain as one of the gremlins' talons connected with his chest, slashing through his leather armor and leaving three red lines, the center one deep enough to leave scars. The creature paid for its lunge with a sword through its gut, which Alex drove upwards, ripping it in half. Alex collapsed against the wall, trying to catch his breath and wincing in pain.

Meanwhile, another two gremlins charged at me. I swung wildly with my mace, batting one away and accidentally striking the stone wall to my right. I kicked out at the other gremlin, which dug its talons into my shins, leaving a mark that should have been deeper if not for my food buff, Boar Padding, protecting me. I hammered a gremlin on the left with the butt of my knife in its chin, then flipped my copper knife point side up to drive it into its neck.

Feeling dizzy and nauseous, I struggled to catch my breath as the creatures continued their assault. Sensing my vulnerability, one of the gremlins lunged forward, but Alex swiftly intervened, cleaving its head from its body with his sword.

The last remaining gremlin, seeing its fallen comrades and the two still-standing humans, panicked and dashed away, a throwing knife embedded in its thigh.

Me and Alex stood back to back, catching our breaths. I took out my wrapped leaf of boar crackling and put it in my mouth. My mouth was dry; I needed to make a waterskin for trips like this.

“Are you alright?” I huffed.

“Yeah, just a little cut on my chest,” Alex wheezed.

“Same, but my leg,” I said, standing straight. “We should go back to the stairs and leave. We aren’t ready yet to face the rest.”

“I can—” Alex winced in pain as he gripped his chest. “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go back to the stairs.”

Collecting our coins, I came up to 9 jester coins. We retraced our steps, but Alex still wanted to take a detour. In a closed-door room, there was a lone stone chest. I cuffed Alex to stop him from reaching it.

“Yeah, you’re right. You should get this one,” Alex said.

I shook my head and threw a knife at it. It clanged off the chest without doing much. “Now that we’re going further down, we should be careful.”

The chest was normal and not trapped or a mimic. It revealed a pair of leather pants.

Leather Pant of Slickness - F

More effective against rain and water.

I folded my jeans, one leg now slashed and bloodied, and put on the new leather pants. They were a bit loose, but I tightened them to my hips with my leather belt.

When we came back to the stairs of the second-floor dungeon and went up, instead of being transported to the first floor, we opened the door to reveal the entrance of the dungeon. This mechanic seemed to save people who made it more than two floors from walking all the way back up again.

We snuck back to camp. I told Alex to hide while I got Ethan to patch us up without Bianca knowing. In my sneaking around camp, I noticed three more people had joined. One was a stewardess I remembered from the plane, an older lady who had offered me drinks. The other two were a mother and her teenage son, both in disbelief and panic as Bianca and Anika oriented them to their new reality.

I caught Ethan's eye and signaled him to come over.

Ethan looked around and snuck over to the bush I was hiding in. “Orion? Why are you…”

“Alex and I are a bit scratched up. Can you patch us up, doc?” I asked.

“Oh man… I think I have to tell…”

“Ethan, it’s no big deal. Just minor cuts,” I said.

Ethan sighed and nodded. He fetched a torch and some pots from the stockpile.

“Just going out to take care of some business, if you know what I mean,” Ethan shouted to the group.

Adjusting his eyeglasses, Ethan brought the torch up to examine Alex’s wounds. “Some of these are healing already. Interesting.”

“It’s my armor. It can do that,” Alex said wincing.

“The middle cut still needs some stitching. Hold still.”

Ethan opened a small clay pot and retrieved an army ant. He placed the ant’s mandibles on the top of the wound, and it bit into Alex’s flesh.

“Wait, what are you doing? Ants?” Alex asked.

“I'm still waiting for my threads to dry. This is an old technique for suturing wounds. One of my skills makes sutures heal faster and harder to tear, but you still have to take it easy,” Ethan said, twisting the ant's body off until only the head was left on the wound. He lined up the next ant, suturing the wound with five ant heads.

My leg required three ants to suture up. The process was grotesque but intriguing.

“Here, both of you eat this. It’s a root that Anika harvested with her Herbalist skill. It has some antibiotic properties but keep in mind, it’s not penicillin. You’ll both probably have to rest for a while,” Ethan said.

“Thanks, doc. And thanks for keeping it from Bianca,” I said.

Ethan sighed. “The wounds aren’t so bad, but you should seriously be more cautious. We can’t afford to lose people. Not with the amount of work that has to be done. I won’t tell Bianca now because you’re both adults, but the minute we start keeping secrets is the minute this community loses trust with each other.”

When Ethan left with his pots, Alex spoke up. “I told you we shouldn’t have told him. It’s better if they don’t know about this. I would have healed.”

“No, Ethan’s right. I’m going to take a break from dungeon diving for tomorrow, at least until my leg heals up. You should too,” I said.

Alex looked like he agreed but didn’t give a positive confirmation. In the following days, more people joined Thornhill. Among them were young men and women, eager to avoid manual labor and find their purpose in the dungeon.