Free Web NovelChapter 3: The Shaman’s Test
Nara worked quickly.
Her obsidian knife, sharpened by hand, sliced into the compy’s neck. Blood pooled in the stream, dark and coppery. She didn’t flinch.
"Hold this," she said, shoving a severed leg toward Rex.
He caught it. Warm. Still twitching.
"What am I supposed to do with—"
"Hold it up. I need the light."
The last of the sun bled through the canopy, but Nara worked as if she could see in the dark. Within minutes, she had skinned the creature, rolled the hide into a bundle, and cut strips of meat that she laid across a flat stone.
Rex watched, useless, the compy leg growing cold in his hands.
"You just... do this every night?"
"When I have to." She didn’t look up. "Meat is meat. Hide is hide. The spirits don’t care how it dies, only that nothing is wasted."
The system panel flickered at the edge of his vision.
[SKILL OBSERVED: TANNING (NARA) - LEVEL 42]
[Would you like to learn? Y/N]
Rex blinked. "Yes."
[NEW SKILL: TANNING (LEVEL 1)]
[PASSIVE BONUS: +5% hide quality when processing]
He almost laughed. The system was teaching him through watching too? No blueprint required?
"What are you staring at, handsome demon?" Nara said.
"You’re good at that."
"I’ve had practice." She finished the last cut, wiped her knife on a leaf, and stood. "The pack will be back when they smell blood. We need to move."
"Move where?"
"My camp is a short walk from here. Unless you’d rather stay with your..." she glanced at the lean-to, "...little home."
Rex’s pride stung. But his ribs ached, his mana was still at 2, and he had no fire. "Fine. Lead the way."
She didn’t wait. She grabbed the meat bundle, slung it over one shoulder, and plunged into the jungle. Rex snatched his club and followed.
The darkness thickened fast. Without Nara, he would have been blind. But she moved like she belonged here—stepping over roots, ducking branches, pausing every few meters to listen.
"You’re not from anywhere I know," she said after a while. "Your skin. Your speech. That blue light that flickers around your hands."
Rex’s jaw tightened. She’d seen the blueprint glow.
"It’s... a gift," he said carefully.
"From which spirit?"
"I don’t know yet."
Nara stopped. Turned. Her eyes caught the faint starlight filtering through the canopy.
"My people have a saying: The spirits give nothing for free. Whatever power you carry, it will demand a price."
[DRAGON AFFINITY: 0 → 1]
Rex felt it—a warmth behind his sternum, faint but real. Like swallowing hot tea. He touched his chest.
"What did you just do?" Nara asked, her voice sharp.
"Nothing. The system..."
"The what?"
He hesitated. How much to reveal? In survival games, you never showed your full hand until you understood the other players.
"A spirit," he said finally. "Call it a spirit that lives in my head. It gives me... knowledge... for building... to survive."
Nara stared at him for a long moment. Then she laughed—a short, barking sound without humor.
"A spirit in your head," she repeated. "And you think that makes you special?"
"I think it makes me alive. Which I almost wasn’t, twice today."
She turned and kept walking. "We’re here."
The camp was small—a circle of trampled earth ringed by sharpened stakes. A fire pit sat in the center, cold. Two hide tents hunched against a rock wall. And tied to a post near the tents, blinking at Rex with sleepy yellow eyes, was a small feathered raptor.
"Is that a... pet?" Rex asked.
"That’s a warning system." Nara knelt by the fire pit and struck two stones together. Sparks flew. "He screams when strangers approach. You didn’t make him scream, which means either you’re not a threat, or you’re so strange he didn’t know what to do."
She got the fire going—real flame, real smoke, real warmth. Rex sat down heavily, stretching his hands toward the heat.
"So... why did you save me?" he asked.
Nara tossed the compy meat onto a flat rock near the flames. "Because you killed one of the pack. Alone. With a stick. That takes either courage or stupidity. And both are useful to me."
"Useful for what?"
She met his eyes. The firelight danced across her tattoo.
"The River Folk are dying. Our chieftain is old. Our hunters are few. Three moons from now, the dragon’s collectors will come for our tribute, and we have nothing left to give." She paused. "But the old stories speak of a time when the sky fell and a man with strange fire in his hands came to unite the tribes."
Rex’s heart hammered.
"Do... you think I’m that man?"
"Don’t be stupid. I just think you’re... something." She pulled a strip of cooking meat from the stone and handed it to him. "Eat. Rest. Tomorrow, I’ll take you to the chieftain. If he doesn’t kill you, we’ll talk more."
Rex bit into the meat. It was tough, gamey, perfect. His stomach sang.
[+15 HP]
[+10 STAMINA]
"One question," he said, chewing. "Before the... crash... there was a woman with me. Dark hair. Green eyes. Her name is Sofia. Have you seen her?"
Nara’s expression flickered, just for a moment. Then it smoothed.
"No," she said. "But the river brings many things. If she survived, she’ll find someone... or something."
The way she said something made Rex’s skin crawl.
He finished his meat in silence. The fire crackled. The little raptor made a soft chirping sound and went back to sleep.
[QUEST UPDATE: PROVE YOUR WORTH]
[PHASE 1 COMPLETE: SURVIVE THE NIGHT WITH NARA’S HELP]
[REWARD: 200 XP]
[LEVEL 1: 210/100 → LEVEL 2!]
[+5 STAT POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE]
[LEVEL 2 UNLOCKED: NEW BLUEPRINT TIER 1.5 (BONE TOOLS)]
Rex dismissed the panel. He was too tired to allocate points.
"Sleep," Nara said, pointing to one of the tents. "I’ll watch."
"How do I know you won’t kill me in my sleep?"
She smiled. "If I wanted you dead, I’d have let the compies finish the job."
Rex crawled into the tent. The hide smelled of smoke and something floral. He curled up, his club beside him, and closed his eyes.
The last thing he saw before sleep took him was the system panel, still glowing faintly in the dark.
[DRAGON AFFINITY: 1 → 2]
[Awakening in progress...]
