Towards the end of the day, Sandrine was feeling somewhat better. Resting, coupled with her rise in stats and Paquerette's body warmth relaxing her muscles, allowed Sandrine to have a clearer head. The bleeding had stopped in her temples and her ankle, as well as her pierced hand, but the wounds looked very bad and would necessitate a good cleaning as well as bandages. The problem was that she couldn't move her arms at all. Some of her muscles were ripped, her joints were swollen and in a horrifying dark color, and her fingers were still quite bloody, with a few nails missing.
There was no way she could clean herself and take care of her body.
The only thing she could do right now, was believe in the game miracle called 'high constitution' and pray that her stat would be used enough to slowly go up, eventually healing her.
It was painful but she could now somewhat move her body, except for her arms and her torn ankle. This allowed Sandrine to slide off Paquerette's back and take her feeder and through out of her inventory, as well as her bed and Gribouille's. For the water, she had to crouch, tuck the bottle between her legs, use her teeth to open the cap, and then do her best to pour at the right place.
Thankfully, she had cooked a lot of potatoes the night prior, she could just take them out cold and share them with Gribouille with some jerky and saucisson.
The basic needs were met and the night was about to fall. Sandrine crouched, tucked the lamp between her knees and used her mouth to slowly turn the lever. It was a bit hard, but still doable.
Now that everything was settled, Sandrine really wanted to clean up a bit. Her shirt was covered in dirt, dust, blood and Gribouille's pee. The rest of her clothes weren't much better and her wounds really needed some cleaning.
Sandrine was a bit crazy, but she was also very clever and stubborn. If she wanted to take a shower, she would do everything she could to have that shower. She took out the foldable shower, stacked chests like stairs, put some flat planks on them, and used the contraption as a ramp, making one of the 50L tanks that MomImThristy had filled roll until it reached the shower tank in order to fill it, using her feet. Then she took out some soft brushes from Paquerette's brush box, rubbed some soap on them, and taped them to the side of the shower.
After fighting with her clothes for a while, she was finally naked and limping towards the shower.
"Doing things without arms is so difficult !"
Even if that was the case, she felt really good after accomplishing something hard on her own. Rubbing herself against the brushes taped to the walls didn't make her as clean as she would have been using two hands, but at least her wounds were somewhat pretty, and she didn't smell like pee anymore.
She put on some clean clothes and plopped down on her bed. She was really terribly tired. Still, she forced herself to take out some bandages. Dressing her hand wound was easy, she just had to use her teeth, but the ankle was harder. She had to help herself with the toes of her healthy foot, and it took quite a while. As for her temple… Forget it.
Finally everything was done ! Now it was time to lay down and review the day.
First, her stats had gone up quite a bit, this was expected considering her exciting game of tag with a monster. But she wasn't the only one. She had been too out of it to notice, but her colorless gang seemed to have fought a bit in order to bring her back to the road. Paquerette didn't level up, the enemies were too weak to be a real danger, however little Gribouille seemed to have contributed a bit, and was now level 3 !
[Name : Gribouille
Species : Earthen canidae
Lvl : 3
Favorability : 15
Health : 81
Fatigue : 27
Strength : 3
Constitution : 8
Agility : 5]
"Your constitution is as high as mine, now ! It's unfair !"
Well, a summoner is always weaker than their summons. Sandrine couldn't do anything about it. She teased the puppy as he was jumping to join her on her bed and sniffing around to assess her state. He still had his worm plushy with him, so very cute. His favorability had gone up a lot, he might have been worried about her when she was running away from the monster.
Just as Gribouille was licking her cheek, Sandrine suddenly felt something wet fall in her hair.
"What the…"
She turned to look at it. It was something so very small, cute, and white with a tiny speck of blood.
"Baby tooth ? Son, you're losing your baby teeth ?"
Gribouille seemed to be only two months old, this was way too young to lose his baby teeth, puppies typically lose them towards three to four months old.Sandrine was overjoyed but also a bit sad.
"I knew that leveling up meant growth, but I didn't think it was this type… They always grow up too fast…"
She still took a picture of the tooth on the bedsheet and sent it to her friends. AlphaWolf replied quickly, as happy as usual, sending a screenshot of what he had scavenged during the day and asking if she wanted something.
MomImThisty, this worrywart, sent a whole novel.
Sandrine rapidly read through it, skipping the endless worries and questions concerning her safety and ignoring the gift offers for bandages and medical supplies. Finally, at the end, the guy asked about Gribouille's age, said that the puppy was cute, and asked if he could buy the tooth.
[84jojo84 : Pervert, why do you want my son's tooth ?]
[MomImThirsty : Is that the most important thing ? Are you wounded ? Are you okay ?]
[84jojo84 : Even if you're acting cute, I won't send you my son's tooth]
[MomImThirsty : What do you mean ? I wasn't acting cute, I was genuinely worrying ! But maybe you would rather prefer I didn't ? I also want to inform you that I like women]
[MomImThirsty : I'll pay a lot for the tooth]
[84jojo84 : Go cook yourself an egg]
She accepted today's water supply and closed the game screen. Gribouille's rapid growth was a bit upsetting, Sandrine didn't want to fall asleep on a bad note.
"Oh, there is still the golden chest ! The chests from the event don't contain any danger since we face them outside, I should be able to open it without any worry."
She was also very curious about what it could contain. A golden chest couldn't possibly contain something common.
Sandrine took it out of her inventory. It was really blinding, shining brightly, all golden with delicate patterns on the lid. There seemed to be something written on it too, but Sandrine didn't understand the language. Just in case, she took a picture of it before reaching out and pulling on the latch with her foot.
The moment she touched it, a loud buzzing sound filled her head.
[Congratulations, you have found a golden chest ! Those chests are very rare and difficult to acquire, either guarded by a strong beast or the reward for a very difficult task]
[Golden chests are personalised chests containing things that the player needs the most at this moment. Open it quickly !]
After reading the message, Sandrine's pupils started to shake. The things that she needed the most at the moment ? There were quite a few. But also, none of them were things that the game would offer. Another vehicle ? Some shelter for her pets ? A weapon ? Something to raise her stats ? Those were what she needed most, but she was sure that the survival game wouldn't be kind enough to give them to her.
Anyway, she had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Sandrine didn't hesitate for long and opened the lid.
What was inside was… Indeed what she needed, but not what she thought. She couldn't be 100% happy, but she couldn't be disappointed either. Those were truly useful.
First, there was a full set of riding gears, including riding pants, rubber riding boots that went up her calves, and leather riding gloves with anti-slip parts on the palms. Then, there were horse shoes especially made for road traveling and hard surfaces, with shock absorbers. There were several sets of them.
Also, she found a blueprint for horse baskets, actual baskets with a harness that were made to be tied to a horse. Each of those baskets was quite small, but worked like her backpack inventory with 20 slots each. She could put four on a single horse. Not only would those baskets be more comfortable for Paquerette than the chests, it would also allow them to have more inventory space !
This was incredibly valuable, but unfortunately Sandrine couldn't make those baskets, because she didn't have a crafting table, a useful tool to make things. She didn't see anyone talking about this in the server chat, so this might be an advanced tool that hadn't appeared in the game yet. Too bad…
The last things inside the chest were… Splints ? There was a whole set of them, for shoulders, for wrists, for fingers, for spine, for knees, for ankles… They looked strange too, they were light blue and seemed to glow a bit.
She cautiously grabbed one, a wrist splinter, and looked at it with her game screen.
[Evolved wrist splinter : Immobilisation is key ! Put this on your wrist, and its healing speed will be multiplied by 2]
Sandrine's eyes widened. An increase in healing speed ? Now that was absolutely broken !
"Sorry game, I didn't believe in you because I was ignorant ! Thanks a lot !"
Without waiting a second, she immediately put the splinters on her fingers, wrists, shoulders, and her torn ankle. Most of her injuries weren't joint ones, but the description just said the healing speed would increase, not that it was only for joint injuries !
She looked a bit insane, contorting on her bed to try and tie the splinters with her feet and mouth, but eventually she succeeded. She looked a bit like a worm, her arms completely hidden by the splinters, but she was happy. If she could heal quickly, life would be way easier !
Checking one last time that her colorless gang was alright and nobody else was injured, Sandrine finally entered her bed and fell asleep quickly.
***
Sandrine should have slept badly, all bundled up like a sausage, incapable of moving her arms at all, but to the contrary she felt surprisingly good. Not being able to move was so comfortable that she didn't want to get up. Still, she had things to do. So she crawled out of her covers and stretched from her toes to her head. She was in a good mood this morning.
Her constitution had once again gone up during the night, probably because she had spent an extended period of time with debilitating injuries, and now with a stat of 9, she was reaching the limits of the human species. If she healed any faster than this, she would leave the realm of humans and completely become someone with superpowers.
Speaking of healing quicker, after turning on the light, unfastening the ankle splinter showed a clean wound with scab all over. The flesh that had been bitten off by the monster was starting to grow back, all of that in a single day ! It was magical.
All happy, she quickly served their breakfast to her pets and bit into a potato while reading the server chat.
[Server chat (7,541/10,000)
-My arm got hurt, thankfully I can drive with my knees otherwise I wouldn't have done the 30km…
-Yeah but now how are you gonna open the chests and fight ? Without arms you're dead
-At least he will get to live one more day. My legs got bitten off by rats, I couldn't even crawl back to my car, I'll die at 6am
-rip
-Rip
-Is it just me or is the difficulty getting crazier ?
-Not just you, the death game is living up to its name
-There's a higher number of people refusing to partake in the event each day
-yeah but without an influx of supplies, we'll all run out quickly
-50% supplies during events it's obviously to force us to go out and die right ?
-I guess so…]
Sandrine nodded while reading. This wasn't surprising that people were despairing so much. Contrary to her who had Paquerette, the others had to drive their vehicle themselves. If they were injured or in no state to drive, they would fail to fulfil the required mileage and die.
Sandrine was unlucky in a lot of ways, having a horse was slower and more dangerous than having a car, but she was also very lucky in her misfortune. Paquerette was a very independent mare that would always decide for herself where to go and how to reach it, making every decision and simply allowing Sandrine to have an input. Since they had grown closer, Paquerette would also make small gestures, just like yesterday when she had been used as a crutch and lowered herself so that Sandrine could use her inventory. On one hand, Paquerette was doing this for herself, because Sandrine was her source of food and her caregiver, but on the other hand she also liked Sandrine a bit, and wanted to help her.
With Paquerette, Sandrine didn't have to worry. Even if she fainted on the road, they would reach their destination.
She heard a little bark and lowered her head. Gribouille was looking at her with big wet eyes.
"Sorry son, mom can't take you in the kangaroo pouch anymore."
She quickly put on some clothes and tried on the riding pants and riding boots. Of course, as was expected of this game, they were perfectly her size. The boots were especially comfortable, even if she could only put one of them on at this moment. The rubber was quite thick, since it was made to resist even in the event of falling from a horse, or your animal walking on your feet with its big hooves. This made the boots durable, but also easy to clean with just a jet of water, and they were waterproof. Which meant, not only were they excellent to take care of a horse, they were also perfect for the upcoming rainy season. And the thick rubber was an additional layer of armor. No horse would bite through the riding boots, so a llama probably couldn't either, right ?
Anyway, Sandrine was very satisfied.
However, she couldn't use her arms, so she couldn't tie her vest in a pouch on her stomach, which meant no kangaroo pouch, so no Gribouille against her heart.
This was sad.
It was almost 6am, so Sandrine cleaned up camp and limped to Paquerette's side.
"You won't lower yourself like in princess movies anymore ?"
If looks could kill, Paquerette would have been a murderer.
"Okay, okay, I get it."
Sandrine put the lamp in her mouth and used an empty chest to climb on Paquerette's back, wiggling until she succeeded in sitting astride. She couldn't really move today and her arms were still held firmly in a crossed position thanks to the splinters, so she wasn't the one to call the shots. Whether they would go on the road or try profiting even more from the event, it was all up to Paquerette.
Gribouille climbed on the chest, and Sandrine bent her leg to offer him a footing, then the puppy came to join her atop the mare. At this moment, the world suddenly turned bright.
[Players who didn't reach the required mileage will disappear]
[7,396 players enter the 5th day]
[Congratulations on entering the 5th day]
[Required mileage for today : 40km]
[Time left for the newbie protection period : 10 days]
[Today is an event day !]
[Event : Roadside opening]
[The black mist will disappear from the roadside. Players are encouraged to explore the roadside]
[The roadside has more opportunities, but also more dangers]
[To encourage exploration, chests on the road will appear 50% less often, and will contain 50% less supplies]
[There is 1 day left for this event. Enjoy !]