The raft crawled along the coast of the island, huddled by the sandbars from fear of Megalodon attacks should they stray too far to open sea. Team Prime had not been out at sea long, only having travelled further along the south coast of the island. They had stopped for a moment to jump off the boat and grab charcoal wood, as well as feed the dinosaurs with an unfortunate Compy pack. However, something on the horizon kept tugging at the team's curiosity, until the captain of the vessel couldn't take ignore it any longer.
"I'm making a B-line for that island," Jack announced as he steered the wooden raft towards the southernmost land mass they had seen.
"You sure that's a good idea?" Raf asked, having remembered seeing the gargantuan fins skimming below the water.
"I'm sure. I've been watching the water straight in front of us leading to the island. Not a single shark has passed in the last 5 minutes," Jack confidently assured him. "As long as I gun it and you two keep watch behind us, we should be able to make it."
Unsure about the situation, Raf only nodded as he and Miko readied their crossbows in case things got messy.
The trip to the mysterious island was half concluded, and not a single shark had been sighted in the water, filling the crew with confidence. As they started the second leg of the trip, Miko noticed something black and inky below the ocean waves.
"Huh?" she said to herself.
She chose to ignore it for now, but the Japanese teen made a mental note to investigate it sometime soon.
Passing the first small chunk of land connected to the island, Jack initially breathed a sigh of relief.
"Phew! See? No shark attacks," he told his friends.
As they entered into the bay of the island formation, the sounds of struggles could be heard, followed by the water running red and the slapping of tail fins against the surface. Looking into the center of the bay, the team spotted two Megalodons ripping into a poor Carbonemys.
"But it's still early!" their leader shouted as he banked the opposite direction, wanting no part in the carnage up ahead.
As they turned back around and followed the south island's coast, Miko noticed a strange glimmer on the small landmass away from the main island.
"Stop right there, Jack," she instructed, pointing to the mini island along the coast. Complying as the Megalodons were now far away, Team Prime briefly stopped to look at what had caught her interest.
"Notice something?" their leader inquired as he and Raf hopped off the boat.
Walking towards a palm tree, Miko kneeled down to get a closer look at what appeared to be a green box of sorts. Curious, she undid the lock mechanism and popped it open, the smell of dust and ancient dirt filling her nostrils.
"Ugh, smells like something died in here," she coughed as she moved over to let the boys see.
Inside the box was an aged piece of paper. Confused, Miko picked it up and spread it out, finding a page containing information about a Hyaenodon.
"Hey, it's one of the dossiers!" she exclaimed as she recognized the layout. Handing it over to Raf, the tech and dino geek read it over in detail as he inserted it back into the book where it belonged.
"So these green boxes must be where the rest of the dossiers are stored," he observed. He, Miko, and Jack also noticed that they'd gained another level, as well as getting an xp boost for two hours.
Before he could further comment, Miko notified them, "Guys, that wasn't the only note. Check this out."
She was surprised that the extra note was another journal entry from the mysterious Helena Walker. After she finished reading the second note, she passed it to Raf and Jack who read it to themselves.
"There's an arctic region? We should definitely check it out when we can," Raf excitedly suggested. He'd always wanted to see snow, and not counting the single snowball from Optimus after the scraplet incident, he never had his wish fulfilled.
Jack smiled. "We'll keep it on the to-do list, sport. Although what Helena said is a bit worrying. No seasons? No planetary axial tilt? Seems a bit alarming, don't you think?"
"We're on an island full of dinosaurs and you're worried about us skipping flu season?" Miko humored. Jack and Raf snickered at the remark.
"Yeah, you have a point," Jack conceded. "Still though, there's something about this place that's stranger than just that. Those giant flying obelisks are a dead ringer about that much at least."
After debating the nature of their new home momentarily, the team jumped back on the Raft, once again searching for a better landing spot that was lacking in Megalodons. They circumnavigated the island, strangely finding only herbivores as they travelled. Normally they would see a Raptor or two by now. Or at least a Dilo or Compy.
"Oh, look over there!" called Raf to his friends.
Ceasing his steering, Jack went with Miko to investigate what their friend was looking at. Bringing their own spyglasses to their eyes, they spotted it. A Level 140 Male Ankylosaurus. The highest they had seen among level 20's and 55's
"Alright guys, you already know what we gotta do," Jack said as he pointed them towards a nice sandbar to land on. As soon as they docked, Miko hopped aboard Knockout and ran down the beach towards the Anky. He and Raf soon followed with Arcee and Razor Wing.
"Alright, let's make this quick and easy. On 3, we all shoot him and continue till' he knocks out," Jack instructed. Nodding their heads, his friends readied their shots as they aimed for the armored herbivore's face.
On the three count, 3 crossbows fired as one, each puncturing the Anky's thick plating, earning a groan of discomfort from the animal. It quickly switched to the offensive as it charged at Arcee and Jack. Thankfully, the pair was nearly as fast together as with the real Arcee, as they easily dodged and kept ahead of the cumbersome dinosaur while Jack fired from atop the saddle.
After about 7 tranq arrows from each member (4 for Jack), the Ankylosaur shivered before it ungracefully tilted over on its side. The team briefly celebrated their success as Jack went to apply narcotics.
"Alright guys, you know the drill. Mejoberries please?" Jack requested. Miko and Raf pooled their purple berry stash into Jack's hands. Once they were all stashed together, the leader of the team put the pile into its inventory so he didn't have to sit and feed the Anky for the next few hours.
As the male dinosaur was being tamed, the team decided to explore the land mass while they were waiting.
"The island shouldn't be too big and dangerous judging by what we saw on the water. Let's spread out and see what we can find. If you run into trouble, run back to the boat and shout as loud as you can," instructed Jack. His friends nodded before they went separate ways with their animals.
While the boys went to explore the interior of the island, Miko had instead stayed back near the boat. Rather than explore the small landmass she stood on, she was more interested in checking out what lies beneath the waves.
"You stay here Knockout, Raptors aren't meant for swimming," she told the scarlet dinosaur before she sucked in a deep breath. Then, she clasped her hands outward and dove beneath the water's surface.
She already knew that the water was fresh even if it was the ocean, so she didn't worry as much about getting salt in her eye. Searching the sandbar for anything of interest besides Coelacanths, she noticed a strange inky trail emanating from the ground before a steep dropoff. Curious, she swam her way over to the trail before following it down, soon finding a giant black rock.
Before diving down to inspect it, she swam to the surface and took a big gulp of air. "Good thing I put levels into oxygen," she said to herself before swimming back down to before the drop off. As she finally approached the object, she touched it with her hand, only to find it to be oily and slippery. It was then that it hit her.
"This is oil!" she realized inwardly. She hastily pulled out the apprentice pickaxe, wondering if she could extract some oil from the rock. As she knocked on it, globs of oil split apart from the large rock, allowing her implant to scan and scoop the substance into its database.
As she finished chipping away at the oil rock, she noticed that another one lay not far to her left. She began to swim towards it, just as a Coelacanth swam in front of her face. Before she could reach out to try grabbing it, a long and sharp snout clamped down on the fish, taking Miko aback. Thinking it was a Megalodon, she readied her pickaxe to rake its gills if she lived long enough, but relaxed slightly as she took in the shape.
The animal that'd snapped up the fish was much smaller than a Megalodon, resembling a cross between an alligator gar and a dolphin with its plump body and flippers combined with its long toothed snout. The creature, rather than attacking Miko, swam up to her unafraid, allowing her to view what species it was with her spyglass at point blank.
"Male Ichthyosaurus Level 35"
"Sorry buddy, can't stay long to play," she wished she could say as the snout nuzzled her affectionately. Instead, she offered a piece of raw meat to it instead as she swam up for more air. When she surfaced, she found the Ichthyosaurus had surfaced with her, begging for more meat.
"Alright finee, Knockout was giving me attitude about fish meat anyways. Here you go," she complied, tossing raw fish meat into the snout of the marine reptile, who gobbled it up earnestly.
Even as she dove back to grab the other oil node, the Ichthy refused to leave as it kept asking for more food. Getting a little annoyed with its pestering now, Miko was about to shoo it away with her implant hand when it lit up brightly, detailing stats about the animal along with a taming bar concerning passive taming.
"Hmm, maybe we're getting somewhere," she thought as she chipped away at the other oil rock. As she kept hitting the rock, she tossed another fish meat at the animal as it clicked in glee.
Unfortunately for Miko, she needed to rest from swimming so much, so she started swimming back to shore with the Ichthy following behind. Upon reaching the sand, she stood there for a bit as the large eye'd reptile stared at her at the surface as she kept feeding it.
The Japanese teen had taken a moment to put the cumbersome oil inside of the forge before turning back to the Ichthyosaur to feed it one last fish meat. However, she found her marine reptile companion had gone elsewhere.
"No way did you just freeload almost a half stack of fish meat off me," Miko huffed, jumping back into the waves to find the little fish thief as the sun began to set.
While she was searching, her eye caught a glimpse of something shiny on the sand. Intrigued, Miko swam towards the source of the shine and found a cluster of shiny clams. Picking one up, she found several pearls inside each of them. She quickly added the pearls to her implant before resuming her search.
As the sun was beginning to dip below the ocean, Miko spotted the tiny figure of an Ichthyosaur speeding towards her. Finally having located the little thief, she held out a piece of fish meat to complete the taming process, but was surprised when the reptile zipped right past her. Confused and worried, she turned towards the direction the Ichthy had fled from before a feeling of fear and submissiveness gripped her. Worried, she squinted her eyes and stared out into the water, when she saw it.
It was a Megalodon, except at least an entire head longer than a normal one. Dark red stripes lined its albino skin, with teeth as black as night protruding from its gigantic jaw. But the worst part for Miko, was the dark red/green cloud that it left in its wake.
"Alpha Megalodon," she realized with dread. She thought the Raptor was bad, but there was no way she would be able to compete with a shark nearly 8 times her size. Seeing there was no point fighting it, she began to flee back towards the island like the Ichthyosaur.
The Alpha Megalodon noticed the splashing organism near the surface and changed its course, now focusing on the human. Miko swam as fast as her legs could carry her, her arms and legs burning from the effort. As the Alpha Megalodon approached, it dove deeper down as it prepared to strike.
It would breach on the little morsel.
"Man, this is what seals feel?" panicked Miko as she swam even harder.
Looking down, she saw the albino beast rise with the red glow from the depths, ready to swallow her whole. Fear gripped her heart, stopping her from moving as she watched the predator ascend, only to feel a flipper stroke her hand. Grasping out of reflex, she looked up to see the Ichthyosaur had just finished gobbling up the meat she had been holding and was making a break for the shore. She held on as hard as she could as the marine reptile sped away.
The gargantuan shark snapped its jaws on empty air as it breached from the water's surface, its giant white body seemingly blocking out the sun for a moment before gracefully returning to its watery domain. Disappointed with the lack of meat in its jaws, it swam back out towards its pack, deciding it'd just feed on one of the long necks at the bottom of the sea.
On the beach, Miko panted heavily on the shore. "That... was... too intense," she breathed as she petted the Ichthy's head. "You saved my life out there bud. I think you deserve a name."
"Does that life saving moment have anything to do with the Greater White Shark leaping out the water?"
Miko perked up at the voice behind her, turning her head to see Jack and Raf and their dinosaurs lugging their way over the hillside, both looking weighed down by something in their implants.
"Maybe," Miko said, feigning ignorance, but her smirk gave it away. "I just managed to get away from an Alpha Megalodon thanks to our new friend here," she confirmed as she patted the Ichthyosaur on the head. "Though I wouldn't have needed to if he stayed in one spot," she grumbled lowly.
"When I said to explore the island, I meant the land section," Jack said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "And an Alpha Megalodon? We barely handled the Alpha Raptor."
Miko looked indignant. "Well without me thinking outside the box, we never would have met this little guy or gotten these, would we?" She then pulled out the silica pearls from before as they glistened in the receding sunlight, catching the boys' eyes.
"What can we use those for?" Raf inquired, curious about the pearls she held. The mention of silica in particular caught most of his interest.
Miko shrugged. "I'm not sure. I figured you'd have an idea for that, Mr. Silicon Valley," she replied.
Ignoring the new nickname, Raf asked Jack, the highest of the group in level, to search all 48 of his levels for anything involving silica pearls. If they were what used for what he thought they were, they may be closer to modernity than he thought.
"Okay, I'm at level 48," Jack said. "Look at all this. Fabricator, polymer, electronics? Those must be what those pearls are for," he suggested.
"So you mean we can craft up some cell phones?" Miko asked hopefully.
Raf smirked. "You're thinking too inside the box. Try refrigerators, GPS, working lights, all sorts of stuff we miss from home." He raised his eyebrow. "Plus, what makes you think we're gonna get service out here?"
Miko blushed as she realized the small little detail. "Maybe those obelisks are fancy cell towers?"
Raf rolled his eyes at his friend before Jack called their attention back to him.
"Let's focus on the present here guys. The Ankylosaur isn't taming up any faster, and Raf and I managed to get some metal from all the nodes at the top of the island, so it's time to do some workshopping." He turned to Miko specifically. "I was talking with Raf about expanding the raft using foundations. You know, making it a little homelier and functional than a couple of logs floating at sea. Mind helping us move the structures so I can place the foundations?"
Being the first one to have complained about the cramped space on the raft, Miko immediately nodded. "Count me in. Come on Raf, time to show us those muscles you tried flexing to Katey during gym class," she teased.
Raf flushed red. "Did you have to make me remember that, Miko?" he facepalmed, earning a laugh from the girl before they went to get to work. The smithy and the mortar and pestle were easy enough to move, but the forge and the large storage box needed Jack to come and help them lift. The forge had nearly crushed Knockout, who barked at his alphas as he nervously stepped a few paces back.
"Phew! Alright, now the easy part," Jack proclaimed. He activated his implant, and by using a trick he had learned with pillars during an experiment, managed to sink the stone foundations into the raft itself, turning the floor into stone.
"How'd you do that? Seems like that breaks the Law of Matter Conservation," Raf commented.
Jack just shrugged. "You act like that's the only weird thing about this island."
"Good point."
Jack returned to his building task as he started placing walls on the foundations, sectioning off a part for humans to stay in while making a wider open space for the dinosaurs to stay at. He also used ceiling to expand it out further from the raft. Taking into account the new aquatic member of their team, he added a little open underwater box using walls and ceilings for him to stay in.
Moving back to the room where they'd stay in, Jack added roofing to the 2 high 4x2 room. giving the humans a roof above their heads and a place to sleep and work without being drenched by the rain. He then called in his friends to help move the structures into the new houseboat's room.
"It's a little cramped in here, but it's alright," Miko commented as she placed down the smithy. Raf agreed with her assessment.
"Well, it's the best we could do with the space that's available. Still need to steer out front, and the rudder is next to the room."
Accepting his explanation, Miko and Raf then left to gather wood to fuel the fire as Jack went and finished adding railings to the side and a dinosaur gate and ramp to the left of the rudder, allowing them to get the animals and themselves into the boat easier.
Jack yawned, even though he knew he didn't really need to sleep anymore. It was a good day's work, and after taking a few breaks to put the Ankylosaur back to sleep, he was content to put down his sleeping bag and head to sleep. It was night after all.
The sound of tired Raptor footsteps told him all he needed to know as his friends and the dinos climbed onto the boat, exhausted from smacking metal rocks and chopping trees. Seeing that Jack had hit the hay, Miko and Raf emptied their resources into the forge and closed the dino gate behind the Raptors and Razor Wing before taking out their own sleeping bags and snoozing as well, the fire from the forge providing a comfortable warmth and light to their abode.
For the raft, I based it off of the design of the youtuber Eradicat0n and his video if you want to better visualize it since I know it's hard to visualize ARK building in words.. The only difference between his video's build and here is the dino gate and ramp is to the side instead of the front, the rudder is in the pen side, and there's no ceiling over the pen and only railings instead of walls.
Anyways, thank you to those who reviewed, favorite'd and followed so far, I appreciate you all enjoying the story as much as you are. I'll be back soon with another chapter which should be a bit longer than this one.
To Liam199e, thank you again, glad you liked the concept with Arcee. As for the others, you'll have to wait and see
To PedroFaria339, thank you as well