Chapter 9 Punji Sticks

After Yukikaze finished hunting all the rabbits she went back "home" to look for good sticks that she can turn into punji stick to build her traps.

` I haven`t seen any good sticks on the way back or while hunting. That means I won`t have to search in the North and the East of my "home". Neither do I remember seeing any on my way back from the labyrinth caves which means my best chances are in the south. `

Yukikaze started marching south to find enough sticks to turn them into punji sticks.

` I will need 28 sticks. They will need to be long enough and shouldn`t have to many curves. ` Yukikaze thought.

It took her 20 minutes to find a part of the forest were a lot of sticks lie around.

She went through the first few sticks thinking the following.

` To short. Not just enough. Again to short. Not just enough and to short. ` It took her a while before she found one suitable to be turned into a punji stick.

` This will take a while won`t it. At least I have today and tomorrow to find 27 more of these sticks. `

After 10 minutes Yukikaze found two more that were suitable but it was still getting frustrating that it took so long to just find three sticks.

After an hour of searching she found her sixth stick. As soon as she picked it up a message appeared.

( Skill (Scavenger Lv.1) successfully obtained.)

` A new skill just for collecting a bunch of sticks? ` Yukikaze didn`t know that the two Beast cores that she collected already had nearly unlocked that skill. But she quickly noticed that she was able to sense a suitable stick for her punji trap to be around 6 meters behind her.

She went and picked the stick up and threw it to the rest in her system inventory.

` How did I knew that it was there. Maybe that skill allows me to sense things that I`m searching nearby? I guess that means the range is still limited. But it should make it far more easy if I don`t have to look at every stick to determine if it is good enough. `

After Yukikaze received that skill it was significantly easier for her to collect the sticks she needed for her punji trap. She simply ran over areas were there were a lot of sticks and only stopped when her skill noticed a stick that is suitable for her trap. She would quickly throw them in her system inventory and continue. That way she was able to gather in total 14 sticks within 20 minutes.

When Yukikaze found stick number 15 a message appeared.

( (Scavenger Lv.1) successfully upgraded to (Scavenger Lv.2) )

` Nice it will be even easier to find all kinds of stuff that I need. ` After the upgrade Yukikaze could sense anything within 10 meters.

It only took Yukikaze in total 3 hours to gather all 28 Sticks. She headed back to her "home" to turn the 28 sticks into 28 punji sticks. After only 15 minutes of walking she reaches her home.

` I have around 2 hours of daylight left. I better get as much as possible done today. `

Yukikaze started using (Claw Lv.4) to cut the end of the stick so that it gets pointed.

It took her half an hour to complete one punji stick since (Claw Lv.4) makes it easier to cut but the entire process still took far to long in Yukikazes opinion. But since she didn`t had any kind of idea how to do it differently she didn`t had any choice but to continue.

The last bit of daylight disappeared when she was done with the fourth punji stick. Luckily she would be able to work faster tomorrow since a message made her very happy after she was done with the fourth punji stick.

( Skill (Crafter Lv.1) successfully obtained.)

` Lets hope this makes quickens the process at least a bit. It is still level 1 but I do hope it saves at least a bit of time. `

` Well it`s to dark to work today anymore so I better clean up eat one rabbit and go to sleep to continue tomorrow. `

She quickly threw the four punji sticks in her system inventory. Then she pulled out one of the rabbits and started to eat it. After Yukikaze finished she entered the tree stump and started to sleep hoping to finish all the punji sticks.

At the next morning Yukikaze started by pulling out a rabbit and consuming it to put an end to her hunger. After that she exited the tree stump and checked if anything dangerous is nearby. Seeing that there is nothing that she can sense she pulls out a stick and started to work to complete the remaining punji sticks needed for her traps.

Yesterday it took Yukikaze 30 minutes to complete one punji stick which meant she was able to build 2 per hour. Now with her (Crafter Lv.1) skill she only needed 20 minutes which meant she could finish 3 per hour.

After 3 hours she finished nine punji sticks and (Crafter Lv.1) leveled up to (Crafter Lv.2) reducing the crafting time of a punji stick to only 15 minutes.

` Right now I have finished 13 punji sticks and I can now build 4 per hour I would have to ,provided I don`t level (Crafter Lv.2) up again, work on the remaining sticks for another 3 hours and 45 minutes. That`s math. ` With that Yukikaze started again working on the punji sticks and only stopped after she was finished with all 28 of them.

Since (Crafter Lv.2) didn`t upgrade again it took her 3 hours and 45 minutes to complete everything.

Yukikaze quickly stuffed all punji sticks in her system inventory to make sure they don`t get damaged yet.

` With all of the preparations of the expedition in the labyrinth caves completed I can enter the caves a bit earlier by going to that entrance/exit from two days ago and start exploring. `

With that Yukikaze left her "home" again and started heading North West towards the entrance/exit of the labyrinth caves.