CWD: GA ~ Five

Not wanting to take a chance on a fire that night, Nacho cracked open the pinecones he’d collected and added pine nuts to his peanuts and berries, washing the meal down with a large gulp of water that had been cooled by the stone cave. For now, he could drink as much as he wanted, but the level of the pond had dropped another inch. “Trail mix and water. Hard to beat; even harder to eat.”

The strange voices had vanished into the west, but he knew that whoever—or whatever—those were, they’d eventually be driven to the pool if they wanted to live.

The night passed uneventfully. Even so, Nacho had set up his grass screen and added plenty of sticks to give him as much warning as possible if something tried to intrude. As the third day in the Evaluation World dawned, he left his cave to explore the plains to the east. The forest thinned out into a prairie, where steady wind drew patterns in the long grasses. A stone path led off through the undergrowth with a crumbling rock wall on either side.

A flash of red drew his eye, and his blade was half drawn before he realized that he had found strawberry bushes growing next to the wall. Big, red, and ripe: the perfect sweets for Nacho.

He spotted a hill in the distance, as well as some kind of structure. Too bad it was already in the dead zone, where the grasses were gone and the dirt had turned to dust. Going out to that area, a space with no cover, was practically begging to be swarmed by monsters. “If the death zone keeps moving at this pace, I’ve got maybe another two days before it reaches Stonehenge Pond. If I ration the jars of water and the food, I could survive for at least another week past that before dehydration starts sending me into a death spiral.”

He didn’t find any exciting monsters that day, only managing to hunt and kill a few level two and three monsters on the plains. That included massive devil grasshoppers that flung themselves into the air in hopes of landing on him and taking him down, as well as giant field mice covered with a thick shell like a turtle. The turtle-mice had hooked talons, and they were tough to damage, but they also weren’t very cautious. Thanks to their apparent disregard for pain, Nacho was able to kill several with his bow and a few with his throwing knives, finishing off the leftovers at close range with his sword and dagger. Overall, the time proved to be profitable, if not terribly exciting.

At one point, he did find a hill that housed a crypt-like room. It was clear of any enemies, and he didn't even need to worry about running into any undead, since the only zombies were ones resurrected by Necromancers—one of the Mind Player classes. There was a happy surprise: the crypt held long swords, battle axes, shirts of chainmail, metal boots, and most importantly: huge, empty water barrels! The alcove didn’t have a door, which was unfortunate, but he was aware that he had found a true treasure trove.

Searching through the connected rooms, Nacho found another bow and quiver of arrows, as well as two crossbows with complicated loading mechanisms. There were only six bolts to be found, and it would take forever to reload one of them, but anything that would increase his odds of survival was worth collecting. In a small closet, he found a pick and a shovel, probably the things that excited him the most beyond the water barrels.

Outside, the wind blew the dust and dead grass around as the dead zone expanded… and Nacho was struck by a very good idea. Instead of using the cave right next to Stonehenge, he decided to fully relocate here, door or no door. Those barrels of water would last him a good long while, and he still had a ton of blackberries, peanuts, and pine nuts.

So long as he moved at night and didn’t draw any attention, he didn’t think the monsters would seek him out on the dust plain. They’d all eventually be forced to congregate at the central Stonehenge Pool; it wasn’t like turtle mice had the ability to collect water, and they would fight each other until only one select group had access to the water source.

As for the voices he’d heard? Nacho wasn’t convinced they were human, but if they were alive, they would have to eat and drink. Nacho didn’t want to be forced to fight them directly for the last of the world’s resources. He’d rather snipe at extreme range while they clustered around the pool. He’d been a very successful assassin for three years: he knew how to pick his moment.

Working until late into the night, rolling barrels full of water back to the hill crypt, Nacho started putting his plan into action. The crescent moon might look fake, but it created enough light for him to work in the otherwise absolute darkness of night. As he stood for a final moment outside his poolside cave, a new light source drew his eye.

There were campfires to the west, and at the same moment he saw the fire, he smelled cooking meat. His stomach grumbled, but then he detected the foul tang of the Putrid Mana. “I’m not gonna fall for that! I know how sick that makes people. I’ll stick with my plant-based diet until I can buy a cheeseburger from the Store in the Starter World, thank you very much!”

Then he remembered the quality of the Store’s food and sighed. He continued rolling the last barrel home before setting up his screens to block the archway of the crypt. Utterly exhausted, he still had to take a moment to laugh at himself. If this had been him from four years ago, the stone slabs might’ve freaked him out and made it impossible to sleep. But now? He laid directly on the stone resting space and prepared for his grand plan. Most likely, he’d be facing some high-level Tier zero monsters.

“Rig up some traps… tomorrow.” He ended the day with five hundred and ninety-six points—basically triple the number of Evaluation Points he’d gotten in his last attempt—he had water for weeks, and food for a few more days. “I can live without food for a good long time. I hope I starve to death weeks after everything else here dies. What would that be worth?”

He woke to his fourth day with a howling stomach, but thankfully, he had the strawberries he’d collected from the rock wall near the forest. He’d also filled another pot with blackberries, and if he added that to the peanuts and pine nuts… Nacho probably had a week’s worth of food, and so much water, he wouldn’t be able to drink it all.

The next half-day was spent digging some shallow pits and covering them with grass. He unstacked stones from the wall and laid them out around the pits, then retrieved sticks from the woods and carved up punji spikes for the holes. He also hid weapons, including one of the crossbows, near the stacks of rocks and set up another halberd trap—it had worked on the gecko bear, and he hoped it would work again.

A sudden wind whipped up the dust, making him gag on the dry air and grains that shot down his throat. He wished his helmet had a visor, or goggles, but instead, he took a bit of the cloth from the swamp shack and covered most of his face so that only his eyes were exposed.

Not forgetting that his main goal was the collection of EP, he spent the rest of the day hunting. Many of the weaker creatures had already gathered at the Stonehenge Pond. From the look of things, the southern swamp must’ve been especially hit hard.

Long Copperopolis Anacondas and albino alligator insects slithered in and around the pool, chewing on Goblin Mosquitoes.. The half-eaten remains of Claw Squirrels lay scattered about, mostly ignored by the swamp-dwelling creatures—indicating to his experienced eye that whatever had been eating them had been eaten in turn.

Nacho waited patiently to start killing until the dustification of the northern forests pushed the naked wolves south. As soon as the first of them began arriving in the area, it wasn't long before the pink canines fought the alligators and snakes. That was when he knew the time for gathering EP had arrived. Bow in hand, Nacho began sending feathered shafts into the wounded, gathering the points for little to no effort. Even though the process was fun and easy, it brought back some memories of point poachers in the Starter World: whoever got the kill got the points. “I can get ready for that in advance, at least.”

He was doing well until another mysterious arrow flew through the air and killed a wrinkled pink wolf. That was when he noticed the Squirrel Lords. He’d killed Claw Squirrels on that first day in the Evaluation, and these things were similar… except they were six feet tall, with big bushy tails, onyx demon horns poking out of their hairless heads—no ears, black eyes, and wet noses leaking mucus, which had dried to a slime around their nostrils. Their arms were overly muscled: frankly, their only point of failure turned out to be skinny, crooked legs.

Hidden in his tree, Nacho counted six of the Squirrel Lords. They wore various pieces of armor and were equipped with a collection of swords, spears, and maces. One held a crossbow, and another hefted a heavy crank crossbow like the one he’d set up in his ambush traps around his crypt home.

They’d pulled along their camping gear as well; clearly, they were migrating to occupy the Pool. The mucous-y Squirrel Lords attacked the wolves and alligators while Nacho stealthily looked on. It dawned on him that the Squirrel Lords were speaking the language he’d heard before, allowing them to coordinate their efforts. It was good to know that even though he was dealing with an intelligent enemy, he didn’t need to fight people yet. Even so, their ability to think and plan together made them a hundred times more dangerous than even creatures like the Gecko Bear or the Melting Crow.

Nacho had already gathered another hundred points and was sitting at six hundred and ninety-six Evaluation Points. With a more powerful enemy on the field, it was time to retreat. He inched his way down from the tree and slipped away into the forest, allowing the sound of the fighting to grow fainter behind him. He didn’t directly go back to his final resting home. Instead, he headed south through the dying trees.

Confirming that that southern swamp was gone—only brackish black puddles in dust remained—Nacho cut around to the southeast, making sure that his trail was wiped away, thanks to the wind, until he was back at his crypt in the blasted plain.

The next day, day five, Nacho took a little trip up north across the plain. The pine forest was now a mixture of dead trunks, rust-colored pine needles, and black dust. He killed five giant spiders—Chaos Spiders, according to the System. The spider monsters had the expected eight legs, the dripping fangs, and the gazillion eyes on their black, furry bodies. He quickly gained an advantage against the creatures, finding that the shifting piles of pine needles made rapid movement difficult for the spiders. That detail allowed Nacho to stay back and use the bow and arrow to pick them off one by one. They were all level six, which meant another three hundred points for him. He was only four points away from a full thousand Evaluation Points, and he could hardly believe it.

He gathered up some firewood, which was easy, since all the trees were as dry as barbeque in North Carolina, if less vinegary. That night, Nacho observed the glow of the Squirrel Lords around their fires, in their new location near the Stonehenge Pond. “So glad I did the water barrels yesterday.”

Nacho didn’t exactly look forward to what he needed to do next. Though he had enough food and water to wait them out, he also wanted to maximize his points. The only issue was that facing all six of the demon rodents at once was a death sentence.

His knife was in his hand and a smile was on his face before he was even consciously aware of what he was doing. Nacho was an assassin. It was time to use his training and even the odds.