Chapter 35: Chapter 29 – What’s That?

The small Water Slime was staring up at the largest thing it had ever seen in its short life. The first thing Resh realised with a huge amount of relief is that it was not a creature, it was made. It looked similar to what the Brevers made on the river. This was also similar to what Resh had seen in its memories during the dream that it had experienced and in that memory, the word that wafted up from the recesses of its mind was “bridge” this was a structure that was used by those big creatures like a Human (Male) to cross over rivers or running water. While this one was significantly smaller than the one in the dream, Resh itself was much smaller as well so in relative terms it would be similar in comparison. After all, the river in which Resh now resided was hardly what you would call a narrow river. It was wide and fast-flowing, with shallow banks and a wide deep river bed. A lot of water flowed through Resh’s new home, that much was certain.

 

Resh was too heavy now with the new Darter Fish it had Consumed to be able to use its Fins of the Darter Fish for a movement boost. Likewise, its Strong Insectoid Wings were too weak as well. The only thing left were its legs and they did not give any movement bonus underwater. But Resh was not planning to move underwater at that moment. Resh instead leapt out of the water and made its way up the bank and to the underside of the bridge to examine it from below.

 

As Resh climbed the vertical side of the bridge and made its way upside down to the underside of the bridge the Water Slime marvelled at the smooth wood, slick with moss and greening from the moist and damp atmosphere on the world underneath. Resh was excited to feel this new material. Resh identified the wood.

 

Wooden Bridge Beam

 

Oh, that was completely useless! I need to try to identify more things. Get that skill stronger. So Resh went around identifying everything on the bridge. A bit of moss?

 

River Moss

 

A fun stone on the underside of the bridge!

 

Bridge KeyStone

 

Soon they were coming thick and fast, Dragonfly Level 3, Brever Fur, Feather, Feather, Glow Worm Level 2

 

Identify has increased to Level 4!

 

Yessss!!! Resh yelled in its head, enjoying the fruits of its labour. It had taken all of 5 seconds to level that one up. It could just keep going but there were still other things it needed to do. Like, explore the wood on the underside of the bridge! Some creatures did come and play around the bridge, but most avoided it, since it was unnatural, and did not belong in the forest. The wood was too smooth to have been natural. And Resh was moving its current one kilogramme of bulk around trying to understand how it was made and what its components were.

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Resh couldn’t understand how without anything holding it up how did it stay up, trees had trunks to keep them up, how was it possible that the bridge could stay up with a huge gap underneath it. The whole idea fascinated Resh and so it had to know. Would its weight cause this incredible thing to collapse? Resh knew that it was nowhere near as large as that Panther had been or the Human (Male) but it was still heavier than most other creatures it had met, dense and compact as well!

 

The other thing that Resh realised was that the bridge was not all one piece, yes the stones it had already seen but the wood as well was made of long narrow pieces that were joined together horizontally to form a structure that spanned the whole river.

 

Just as Resh was enjoying the texture of the wood Resh felt something moving on the bridge. Was it a Human (Male) again? Resh would need to be more careful this time, moving carefully and silently Resh moved to the side of the bridge and peered over the side with its two eyes on stalks off its slime body to that it just had its eyes over the top of the bridge and the rest of the body was underneath still. Belatedly Resh also added Polished Wood as a texture and smell to its database and changed it to blend in with the bridge.

 

Resh stayed perfectly still for a full ten minutes and was just about to give up and head back under when something finally happened, with about half of its time out of water already gone Resh identified the creature coming towards it from the other side of the bridge. This one was smaller than the last Resh had encountered, with the same type of legs, and other appendages.

 

Human (Female)

 

So this is another version of the same species. How comes I don’t see variants of other species? Resh thought, surely there must be other species that have different types. Resh couldn’t understand why this was the case with Humans only. It was clear to Resh that these two variants were similar but also different in many ways. They had the same basic structure with eyes, nose, mouth and ears and other appendages in all the same places but that was where the similarities ended. The limbs of the Male version of the Human were larger and thicker and its legs were longer and hairier as well. Was that the only thing that made them different? Not... even… close. Their body shapes were different as well! Resh would easily have said that they belonged to similar but different species. How could two things that looked so different be considered the same species? This Female version had softer features and more rounded body parts while the Male version that Resh had seen was more angular and harsh. Resh felt more of an affinity with the Male of the species when it considered it.

 

This female was coming towards Resh from the far side of the bridge, wearing something on its body. Resh could tell that there were things to cover itself up like the boots. Maybe it was for protection and blending in? Like how Resh used Camouflage to mimic its surroundings and hide from predators or stalk prey. Resh was very interested to know what this female was going to do. This Human also seemed to have a weapon. It was a long bit of wood that was propped against the side of its head and then had some shiny grey stuff at the end. It was a weapon though, Resh could see that much. The grey stuff at the end was shiny like the surface of the river. It went around the wooden stick and then tapered to a very sharp edge that stuck out from the wood.

 

With this weapon, the Female made its way over the bridge past Resh. About twenty metres into the forest it stopped at a large tree. The without any warning and no preamble the weapon was down and swinging for the tree. Smashing, shiny, sharp point first Resh saw that it cut deeply into the wood! Resh could only gape, its twisted mouth open. Even the Panther, with its very sharp claws, had not been able to make that kind of impact on the tree when it had been chasing Resh. What was this weapon? Identify told Resh.

 

Rough Woodcutter’s Axe (Rank: F)

 

Hmm, what is Rank F? Was Resh’s first question, the Water Slime was seeing new things again and it moved closer so it could see better. The first swing of this weapon, this… Axe had cloven through about a quarter of the tree’s trunk and caused the tree to teeter on its base. Less than a second later, the Axe was out of the tree’s trunk and swinging again, this time even harder! It missed the mark of the first cut but just by a few millimetres and at a slightly different angle, where the first strike had been angled slightly upwards, this one was above it and angled a little downwards. What it created was a small cut-out of the trunk that met about ten to twelve centimetres inside the trunk of the tree. Resh was just thinking why a creature this skilled would miss since it always tried to strike things in the same place for maximum damage.

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