Back on Earth, Civ always takes a glimpse of the night sky and appreciates the beauty of the stars. Walking back home from work, he always follows the Big Dipper constellation. But now it is all different. Civ trembles as he tries to search in the vast night sky for any similar constellations on Earth. But all of the constellations are different. He is like an archeologist looking at the hieroglyphics for the first time.
"If the constellations are different meaning to say-". Upon realization, he slumped to the ground. The only thing he hopes for is at least to be in the same universe as the Milky Way but, it seems all hopes are gone. He looked to the ground and sneered "Whoever sent me on this damned place. If I get a chance, I'll make sure you pay!". Looking at his tribesmen's situation, he took a deep breath and smiled. He went back to the cave to plan his future in this world.
The next day, scratching his eyes, Civ went outside the cave and started stretching. As he started stretching, the sun also just graced them with its first rays of sunlight. Most tribesmen were still sleeping. Civ jolted as he realized that he was actually in this different world.
"Geez, It still feels unusual. But since no one is awake. I'll just start jogging"
He started going around the camp. The camp was almost the size of track and field so it was perfect for jogging. He jogged like a feather and continued to jog three times around the camp. After he finished the people just started to wake up. He was drenched with sweat but Civ smiled and noticed something. "This is the first time I've run this long.". To his surprise, his body has more endurance. When he was on Earth, he was only able to run around twice in his block and after that his body got tired.
He finished his morning exercise with a jogging and went back to the cave but he was stopped by Arsh.
"Hey Civ where have you gone to?". With a lazy eye, Arsh slowly comes near to Civ and scratches her head which looks like a bird's nest.
"Yeah, I just exercise to start the day."
"Excer- what? What do you mean and why are you sweating?"
"Nothing I just want to look around since I woke up early today."
One thing also he forgot is that exercise is not a thing in this community as they are just living to survive.
"Anyways, I want to go to the river. Do you know where it is?"
Still scratching her eyes while yawning, Arsh pointed to the west.
"It's in that direction, just walk straight in that direction and you will see the river".
"Okay, thanks for the direction."
On his way to the river, Civ collects berries to eat for his breakfast and forages some for his tribesmen to share.
When he arrives at the river, what he sees is a river full of stones. He gets naked and washed and scrubs his body using a stone. Satisfied, he steps back into the large stone where his animal skin clothes are and gets dressed. A faint smile appears in his mouth as he appreciates the beauty of the scenery.
The river roared and the birds chirped. It smells earthy but refreshing. Living in an urban city for the rest of his adult days, he almost forgot the smell and the sound of a river.
"Now I'm full and refreshed, time to do my first plan".
He walked around near this big stone and flipped and inspected any stones the size of his hand or bigger.
FlippedSmash
FlippedSmash
FlippedSmash
Looking at the pile of stones that he collected, he selected a handful of them. Then returned to the camp together with the berries he foraged.
At the camp, Civ went straight back to their cave and his father was still there preparing to go out.
"Where were you Civ?", his Kivrah sternly stared at Civ.
When Civ heard his father, he tucked his head.
"I just went to the river to take a bath and forage some berries for our tribesmen."
He gives the berries he forage to his father with a sad face.
"Alright, but as I said be careful. Next time, you need to tell me when you are going there, and don't go there alone."
"I understand."
"Good, I'll get going. For the next three days, you are not allowed to leave the camp so stay here and recover your strength."
Civ looked at his father's face and he sensed the fatherly care from him and he smiled.
"I understand Father. I'll stay here so I will not make you worried."
When his father left, Civ starts to execute his plans.
First is to find sticks the length of his height. While jogging earlier, he knows that there are sticks around the south part of the camp. After resting a bit he went to the south of the camp and selected straight sticks and went back to the cave.
Next is to crack these stones. He gets his tools, a deer's antler for his billet, a stone for his hammer, and an animal skin for his protection. The stones he selected are quartz and chert. It has a waxy and glassy texture. Using the stone, he slowly chipped the stone at an angle he needed but-.
"CRAACK"
The stone was split in half.
He tried again with a new stone. He was able to chip away some of the bits. But then he hit the stone at a slightly higher angle and the stone cracked again. This happened 3 times.
"Damn, without prior experience, it's hard to do it."
The one Civ is doing flint knapping. An ancient technique used by prehistoric humans to create tools. He was trying to imitate the one he remembered when he looked at the videos on the internet.
"If there is only a tutorial on where I can copy the technique."
Sadly there is none.
The morning ended with some scratches from the hand and broken stones. Even with this, Civ's eyes are still beaming with excitement.
"This is tiring, it is already noon so I try to walk a bit and eat my lunch."
Civ left the cave and went back to the west where he found the berries and ate some while looking at the camp.
While eating, Civ is a bit frustrated.
Last night before he slept, he tried some things he read in novels.
"Status"
….
"Open status"
…
"Status Window"
…
"Admin"
…
"Power-ups"
…
Nothing happened, he tried to close his eyes and take a deep breath.
While lying down, he stretches his right arm and opens his hand.
"Fireball"
SNORING.........
He doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. There is no reaction aside from the sound of his snoring father.
Remembering last night, he can't help but cover his face out of embarrassment from himself.
"Damn, there is no power or magic in this world"
That is why he decided to start working on flint knapping as soon as possible to have tools to protect himself. But he did not expect that he would fail to create his first tool.
"Experience comes with practice."
Eyes full of determination, he finished eating and went back to the cave.
Looking at the last stone that was broken in half, he inspect it carefully.
"Hmmm Am I hammering it heavily or in the wrong place?"
He gets his stone hammer and hammers the half chert in the side of it.
Tink
Civ eyes brightened because it was the first time he saw that the stone had chipped away a chunk of flakes. He tried it again on the other side of the stone and he was able to chip away a flake.
"Ohhh Great! I get it now!"
It's not about how strong you hammer it. It's where you hammer it. Remembering the videos he watched, it looks like the person is hammering it with a strong force. But they are hammering it with purpose and control.
"It really looks harder compared to the professionals who do it."
Civ continues to hammer it with enough force to thin out the stone by hammering it.
He was able to thin out to his preferred shape and thickness. He was able to shape it like an ellipse with a pointy on one side with a thickness of around 1/2 inches.
Next up, he gets one of the horn tips of the deer and presses down the shaped stone. Then he starts applying pressure to the edges of the stone using the horn tip. He was able to remove the tiny bit of flakes, a serrated edge shows. Professionals called it pressure flaking. This technique's purpose is to sharpen the edges of the stone. He finished his blade by adding a notch in the opposite end of the pointy edge. Then he sandwiched the stone blade into the branch he split in half earlier and wrapped it with a string. He felt the grip and it was to his liking.
"Yes! My first weapon! A stone dagger!"
Civ was delighted that before the day ended, he was able to create the dagger. It was not as good as the one he saw on the internet but it will serve the purpose. With his hands full of cuts and scratches, he starts tidying up the cave before his father comes. It will be hard to explain right now how he came up with the idea and invention.
"For now let's clean this place and think about that in the future."
While he is cleaning, he separates the bigger flakes he chipped. He keeps them in the corner, for now, he needs to hide them with other animal skins they have and throw away the rest.
"These bigger flakes, I can use them in the future tools I'll create."
He finished cleaning the cave at the same time his father arrived from foraging.
"How was your day son?", his father asked while giving him the berries they gathered for him.
"Here, take it and eat this. I know you stay here for today as our tribesmen mentioned to me that you did not leave the cave for the whole day"
"Thank you Father". Civ gladly accepted the berries as he was hungry for the things he had done that day.
Civ starts eating the handful of berries while his father is starting to prepare to make a bed to rest.
"How was today Father?" Civ asked.
His father looked at him and sighed. "Not good. The berries we gathered were not enough for our tribesmen. We decided to give it to the ones who will need it the most which is all of the injured, children, and elderly."
Realizing what it meant, he hurriedly gave the remaining berries to his father.
"Father I'm returning the half of the berries to you. I know you haven't eaten yet also."
Seeing his son immediately react, Kivrah held back his tears. He stops his son and gently pushes back his son's hands.
"Don't worry son, I'm fine. You need to eat more since you just came from injury. You need more food to recover your strength."
Civ interrupted his father "Father please accept this. I've already eaten enough and I'm full. You need to eat to recover your strength also. Please?"
Since his son insists on having him eat the remaining berries, he can't help but accept it since he is also hungry.
"Thank you son. But still, you are not allowed to leave here for another two days."
Hearing that Civ can't help but tuck his neck knowing he cannot ask his father if he can leave the camp tomorrow.
Civ just smiled. "Yes Father, do not worry. I will not leave the camp"
"Alright, since it's almost nighttime prepare your bed also and sleep after the sundown."
Civ replied with a nod and started getting the animal skins in the corner and preparing his bed.
The nighttime comes but Civ is unable to sleep yet. Hearing his father's snoring, he recalled the stone-knapping he did today. He cannot show it right away to his father because he still does not trust his tribesmen. They might do something harmful to him if ever they think this is something I should not possess. He does not want this to turn into a witch hunt.
I need a plan to introduce stone tools to my tribesmen. For the rest of the night, he thinks of plans he can do to introduce the idea of stone tools to their tribesmen.
A couple of ideas later, his eyes brightened, and rubbed his nose. "Hehehe that works. I'll try to do it tomorrow"