Sarting A Fire

It had been a long time since I left the tree, chances were that by now another predator had already found the bodies and was having the time of their life, not that I could have done much about it since I couldn't risk carrying food with me while traveling the jungle, as that would just be inviting disaster.

The sky was slowly beginning to get more orange, and I was beginning to fear that I wouldn't be able to find a river before nighttime.

I decided that it would be a good idea to check for the time, so I opened my pocket watch; before I could read the time, though, I felt my feet sink, followed by me slipping and then frantically trying to grab onto anything in the end, being able to hold onto a tree.

Although it was certainly terrifying to almost slide to potential death, it was also great that I had found a large concentration of mud, as it meant that water was nearby.

Following the slightly downhill path, I was able to find a tiny stream of water. I was overjoyed, as I knew that this tiny stream of water had to be connected to a body of water, making all that was left to find a river to be following the stream.

Thankfully I was able to get to the river the stream was connected to in only 25 minutes. I was overjoyed when I heard the sound of the water rushing downstream, and although I knew that it was dangerous, I was dying of thirst and just drank water directly from the river. And once finally refreshed, I was able to see that it was already 6:27 pm.

I knew that I had to get a fire going as soon as possible, so I went over to the river and grabbed a rock that I could easily carry in my hand.

Once that was done, I climbed up a tree and found a branch thick enough for me to carve a hole inside of and began bashing the end connected to the tree using the rock I got from the river until eventually, the branch gave in.

After that, I split the branch into two and used the stone to create a hole into the branch big enough for a small cylinder to go through; of course, since I made the hole by bashing a stone into the woo.

It wasn't too neat and would make it harder to use kinetic energy to start a fire, so I ended up using the stone I had to break off one of the fangs in the jaguar skull and use said fangs to smooth out the hole in the wood.

With the base done, all that was left was to make the wooden cylinder, which wasn't too hard with the help of the jaguar fang.

All in all, I was actually able to get things together relatively quickly, having everything set up for the fire just as it hit 7 pm on my pocket watch from there. All that was left was to begin twisting the stick until a fire started, and although I didn't have dry wood at hand, I did have normal wood to add to help maintain the fire.

As time went by, I didn't seem to be going anywhere, so I began to wonder if I was doing something wrong, but after going over everything again, I didn't seem to find any flaws.

Eventually, I began to question if this method of starting a fire even worked at all and began complaining about how I had been lied to and that there was no way to make fire via 'drilling into a piece of wood with a stick.' Unexpectedly though, the system began talking.

"Ooh, ooh, I know the answer host, you can actually make a fire using the method you are currently employing; you just suck at it."

Realizing that the system was not going to be of any help at the moment, I decided just to continue trying. So, without noticing it, I began drilling the stick into the wood base at a diagonal and made an opening to the outside; needless to say, I began to curse but eventually calmed down and continued trying.

To my surprise, however, the wood dust created by me twisting into the hole of the base was moving towards the opening, and eventually, I began to see very light smoke coming from the bottom of the wooden base; excited, I began to drill the wood faster than I had before until eventually, a fire started.

I couldn't even describe the joy I felt at that moment, as I had already started to lose all hope that I would be able to start a fire before it went completely dark. I didn't have time to relax, though, as I still had to find a way to create a safe space for me to sleep in, and with it already being 8:12 pm, I didn't have much time to do anything.

In the end, I decided to just cover myself up entirely with leaves, trying to fall asleep before it began to rain.

The last thing I wanted was to be awake when it began to rain, and the fire went out in the middle of the night. Still, despite my current situation, I was able to find comfort because I was safer than I used to be.

As I help the pocket watch in my hand, I began to think about my family and what was of the world after I died; if what the system said was true, then everyone died, including my loved ones; looking back, I regret being so focused on my studies, as I had often rejected their invitations to have fun just to guarantee my success.

Tears began to form in my eyes, and I began to cry myself to sleep thinking about what could have been before I had to force myself to stop and remind me that it was futile to break down every time I thought of them as there wasn't anything that could be done anymore, not that my own advice was much help.