"Does your family not love you? Sending you here unprepared?"
"In everyone's eyes I'm... kind of an asshole..."
"Asshole?"
"It's a curse word for someone who's selfish, stupid, and rude, even when others try to help."
"So your family tried to help you, and you still came here?"
"No... I did worse earlier. This is the result of everything."
"Do you even know where you are?"
"I have no idea... wait... could you help me?"
"Me? Help you?"
"Yes, help me hunt a Ghorok... Please!" Terry clapped his hands and started begging.
"Why? Why should I risk my life for you? What's in it for me?"
Terry's mind went blank. She was right. Why should she help, risking her life? What could he offer in exchange?
"Did you rebuild this hut?" she asked suddenly.
"Yes, I did."
"How many days did it take you?"
"Days? It took me just a few minutes."
"Minutes? What's that?"
"Um... a minute is sixty seconds."
"Seconds? You use lots of weird words."
"Hmm... A second is like the blink of an eye, not faster, but not slower too." Terry blinked a few times. "Those are 10 blinks, and each blink is a second. Sixty seconds are a minute, sixty minutes are an hour, twenty-four hours a day. Thirty-something days a month, twelve months a year."
"Why not sixty hours a day? Or sixty days a month?"
"I don't know..."
"So you are making this all up? You think I am a dumb girl or something? You're also lying that you can make this in a few minutes? And I do not like liars, goodbye." She turned to leave.
"Wait... I can show you."
The girl stopped.
"It's only a few minutes, surely you can wait for it to see if I am lying or not."
She turned and stood there, waiting.
"Right..." Terry was expecting her to nod or something, but he went outside and found a thick tree, dead a long time ago but now half-eaten by termites.
He started hacking it with his axe.
"You are planning to gather wood and then build... there is no way you can do this in a few minutes."
"Why ask when you will have your answer in a few minutes?"
She wanted to retort but found nothing. Something in her ego was not agreeing to this at all.
"Fine, if you are able to do this feat then I will help you in your hunt."
"Really?" Terry's eyes lit up.
She didn't like Terry's enthusiastic face at all as she snorted. "First, prove yourself! Hmph!"
Terry then went apeshit on his task. Within a few seconds, the large fallen tree and its stump were gone, vanishing into the air.
That girl's eyes went wide as she witnessed that and kept rubbing her eyes at what just happened.
Then, just beside his hut, he started building her a hut. Same style; he had no time to improvise.
It didn't even take a few minutes, just shy of two minutes, and it was done.
"TADAAA!"
"Tadaaa?"
"I mean... Behold!"
"Hmph! Making up words..." She mumbled as she went inside. Terry stood outside and waited.
"This is empty; nothing is here."
"Right... that I would need more time."
"Failed."
"Failed? Come on... you said to make the hut, not the things inside it."
"What's the point of a house if it's empty?"
"You are now making excuses... sore loser!"
"Sore loser?"
"Meaning who knows has lost but still would not accept..."
"I know what sore loser means. Don't presume with me!" Her eyes were glaring with anger.
"Okay... fine... fine." Terry felt it's not worth arguing. The Ghorok hunt was just not his priority anyway; he would return and say he failed.
At least they would not blame him for not participating. He hoped.
"Well then... I leave for my hunt... you enjoy yourself, My lady." He gave another bow and walked away.
After collecting some more stones, herbs, and other things, he repaired the axe again. He continued to wander alone, aimlessly.
"I guess I have to make another hut for the night." The sun was going past noon, but there was still time.
After walking for an hour, he found a good spot. So he sat down under a shade.
"I guess, just spend the night here. This feels safe and fine."
While he was enjoying the shade, he wondered if that girl really helped him to hunt Ghorok. How would that have worked out?
He looked at the axe.
"Nope. I am not going melee with my weak-ass Looney Tunes body."
He needed something else, something which would keep him safe and far.
Archery.
He used the axe and gathered a bendable stick, some fibers, and fashioned a bow out of it. He cleaned a thin stick and got an arrow.
He put the arrow on the bow and aimed at something.
"Strange... that earlier trajectory thing is not triggering." He thought for a moment and then shot it.
It was awful, but the moment he shot, something triggered in his mind.
Crude Hunter's Bow Blueprint acquired.
"Huh?" as he noticed a blueprint section was now ready for him to browse. As he focused on that Crude Hunter's Bow Blueprint, it opened the blueprint and showed what it needed to make one.
Something solid and yet bendable, some fiber, and something hard for arrow tips.
He had all the materials and quickly confirmed the crafting process in his mind.
The wood, the fibers, the sharp stones, they all vanished from his mental inventory. In their place, a new item popped into existence.
Crude Hunter's Bow.
He immediately pulled it out because it looked clean, new, and practical in his mind. In his hand, he felt the weight and balance; it all somehow felt in sync with him as if it were part of his body, bound to his soul.
It was not clumsy like the stick-and-string he'd made moments ago. This one had a proper curve, a taut string that gave out a sweet tune when he plucked it, and a grip that felt perfectly in his palm as if he had been using this bow for years.