Despite forgetting about the Sailing skill and focusing more on his current task, Cole understood that he'd need to fully map out this archipelago so he could begin preparing for the long haul ahead. While where his cabin was located in appeared to be a soft waterfront meadow, he understood that he'd need some sort of compass to tell the directions of this planet. This led to him discovering a small compass rose in the top right-hand corner of his vision along with a circular minimap similar in style to the one from the game.
The only difference was that, instead of a small white square in the center detailing the player, Cole's symbol appeared as a gray pointed arrowhead. This obviously was because the arrowhead was pointing in the direction he was facing and helped to distinguish him from the rest of the people on Gielinor. When he discovered the distinction, he had a theory that the future World Guardian would show up as a small white square.
From the minimap in his vision, Cole learned that he faced the south-western direction and that his current location was the only thing he discovered so far. His cabin was already marked with a modern house symbol like the one used in the game to mark real estate agents, but what surprised him was that there were symbols for fishing nearby.
Deciding to put the fishing spots off to the side for now, Cole turned in the complete opposite direction and walked a few meters. As he walked, he kept an eye on his minimap.
The soft gray fog at the edges of the minimap were slowly fading to reveal another meter as he walked a meter, meaning that each step revealed another step's worth of distance on the map. Even as he walked in the north-east direction, he noticed that there wasn't much to be found save for flowers and soft grassy meadows.
It was only when he reached roughly ten meters (or approx. 33 feet) from his cabin that he spotted them in the distance. Even in another world, a fantasy one at that, he knew what they were.
He saw gray ash trunks and pure emerald green leaves, a shade of green that was impossible to see on Earth, shooting up roughly six meters or so from the ground. Besides from the small amount of the trees he spotted, Cole knew that he just found an entire forest of ash trees. He also thought that, if this place followed a similar logic to the game, he'd expect to find some sprinkles of Oak, Maple, and Yew trees within the forest.
Thus, he quickened his pace into a speed-walk towards the awaiting forest.
=={RS:NS}==
In the moment that Cole's right foot stepped right into the forest, two things happened. One was a sudden rush that washed over Cole's entire body and made him gasp out in both shock and relief. Another popped up in his vision.
[Area Discovered: Primordial Archipelago - Garden of Bik]
"Wait, what?" Cole whispered as the feeling still lingered in his bones as he observed what the System notified him. "Why is it named like that?"
As the realization sank in to what this place was and what his new home of Gielinor was called, or at least what the System called it, Cole felt a deep chill shiver down his spine and settle in his stomach. He knew about the Elder Gods and that the four sisters who created Gielinor along with the rest of the universe. While the oldest and the youngest, that being Jas and Mah respectively, were more famous due to the quests that featured them directly, he still knew about the other sisters.
Bik was the Elder God related to plant life, earth, and organic matter prior to the end of the Elder God Wars when she, along with two of her sisters, reincarnated on Iaia with Seren to guard them. Despite her affinities with these particular elements, Cole knew that she held the most contempt for intelligent life out of all her sisters which is why he felt such a primal fear upon seeing any place named with Bik in it. He was even scared that Bik might forcibly destroy him despite not originally being from this universe.
Taking in a few deep breaths to calm himself down, Cole continued into the Garden of Bik.
With each step leading deeper into the Garden, Cole got to see a far more mystical atmosphere that truly gave him the traditional fantasy feeling. He felt like there was unlimited potential and primordial power flowing through this place that seemed to both acknowledge and sing to him, letting Cole understand in a small part why Guthix fell in love with this world.
He could hear soft birdsong echoing through the forest he was in and it felt soothing to his soul to listen to. Unlike on Earth where musicians have begun to mix in technology to alter the sounds of instruments to make them louder or synthetize new songs, Cole could tell that just the birdsong alone allowed him to be soothed and heal his cracked soul. While he wanted to close his eyes and let himself listen to the birdsong, he knew that he'd need to find the materials he'd need to complete his quest.
As he was currently roughly four meters deep into the Garden, Cole decided to look around where he was for loose twigs and stones. It did not take too long to notice some scattered twigs thicker than his forearm and loose stones that seemed to be pieces of bigger rocks. When he noticed them laying on the ground around him, they seemed to be everywhere as if the very trees and stones left them there to be picked up by him.
Discarding it as mere whimsy of this place, Cole bent down and picked up a loose twig. Almost immediately after picking it up a centimeter off of the ground, the twig vanished from his hand. This, naturally, spooked him as his modern mind was used to having items stay in his hand and not vanish into thin air right in front of his eyes.
Before his mind could wonder where it had gone, a notification appeared in his vision from the System.
==={+}===
[New Material Found! 1x Primordial Ash Log]
Primordial Ash Logs are a unique variant of the common Ash/Normal trees found throughout Gielinor. These particular logs are imbued with Anima that cannot be found anywhere else in the known universe except for on the Primordial Archipelago found within the planet of Gielinor. Despite their nature and the special environment they are found in, they can be used in place of Normal logs for crafting, firemaking, and construction materials.
[Function Discovered! All item and material drops are currently set to automatically transfer into the Inventory upon picking up. This setting can be changed at a later time with a cooldown of thirty (30) days between setting changes.]
==={+}===
After he finished reading the notification, Cole let out a huge sigh of relief. He had no idea that the System had such an automatic collection function and had wondered that he had somehow lost his first ash log. He quickly checked his Inventory and, sure enough, he found one [Primordial Ash Log] taking up the first slot with a small yet readable "1" in the bottom-right corner of the slot.
With the realization that all of his collections can be picked up and stacked automatically in his inventory, Cole wasted no more time. As if renewed with vigorous energy, he swiftly collected more than enough logs and stones to fill two slots of each.
The whole process took a day and a night to complete, but he did manage to complete the first objective fully while making progress in others. By the time he realized he needed to sleep to recover from the events of his first day, he already decided to lay down in the Garden and fall asleep beneath unfamiliar yet familiar stars.
===[RS:NS]===
Continued in: A Bond Formed.