any grammatical, spelling or punctuation mistakes in this chapter are intentional


Day 3

New day of my second life.

Don't think I've even slept for that long (certainly didn't feel like it), but I'm feeling mighty refreshed! Need to start thinking about fortifying my place and making it more of a safe haven. It's either than or packing up all those furnaces and stuff and then moving out like a nomad. Not sure which option I'd prefer just yet.


Decided to stay. The open nature of this plain makes it easy for me to spot any of the freaks, and there's plenty of space for me to build, should I need it (not now, but maybe in the future). Made a chest too. It's something like 1x1x1m by my very approximate estimations, but it seems to fit in as much as my own "inventory"; that's cause when I opened it, I could simultaneously see the contents both inside and through the "inventory" grid. Its really weird and somewhat disorienting, but I got used to it. Kind of.

Speaking of fortifications, I've decided to make them somewhat similar to the Vale's outer wall design, but sized down (obviously). I don't think some logs, planks and cobble are going to quite cut it – need to look for something stronger. Maybe some granite – isn't it, like, stronger than stone? Think I saw some down in that damn ravine.


Found a cave entrance hidden underneath the granite. Have a few torches left, going to try my luck inside. Hopefully, I can find some more iron or something. While a chest plate is good and all, without Aura I'm really vulnerable, so I'd like to try and get myself some more protection.


Another freaking skeleton. Even worse this time, since it was a narrow damn cave – barely any room to dodge. Thankfully, blocking arrows is so much easier with all my "experience" from the spars – I might've been a total loser, but atleast I learned how to shield myself quickly. Getting close to the abomination afterwards and killing it with my axe had been a walk in the park.

But that had to have been a human skeleton. To shatter its bones so easy with but a swing, not even Aura-enhanced…It got me thinking how easy that might happen with a living person. I don't want to think those thoughts. Found some iron too, hopefully digging it will distract me enough.


Just ran out of building material for the walls. Nothing more than a weird mix of cobble, planks and granite on top which I'd shaped to the best of my ability (RIP my arms btw) to prevent anything from climbing it as easily. Vale probably had something similar, just more high-budget. Don't really remember if Prof. Port had mentioned anything about wall-scaling Grimm (Port lessons = NAPTIME! after all), but I hope my "design" is close enough to be effective.

Oh, also smelted all that iron from the cave, and did my best to shape it into an armor set for myself – with pants, a helmet and boots to boot (Yang :/ ). Have to wonder how blacksmiths even cope with their jobs – shaping metal into something resembling armor is SO frustrating; if not for the crafting table guides, I'd have probably ended up with something that would've given the Beacon Forgemaster an aneurysm.

That's just food for thought, though – the armor fits, feels sturdy and weighs me down considerably less than I expected. Nighttime's approaching, so I guess it's going to be as good of a time as any to test it.

P.S: Had some iron left over from my "smithing". Wonder what I can do with a bucket?


that had not gone nearly as well as I hoped it would

started out great too. Ran into a skeleton just outside my shelter; armor did its job and then some. That was just the start - whole lot of zombies spiders and green guys to keep me company while I get used to fighting for myself. figured out some sort of a combo too: heavy axe swing to debilitate and knock back, then quickly unsheathe sword and another heavy swing to finish off. Worked remarkably well even with my dull-edged stone tools but I do need to work on my quickdraw.

Maybe that's why everyone was so insistent on using mechashift. Blake's weapon especially I think – her sword-gun-whatever thing could be switched so fast (from what I've seen in the spars) that she could pull off a crazy flurry of attacks and you wouldnt know what to do but just take it and then cry.

I cant say killing these things was any less disgusting that before (besides the green guys – managed to chop one open and he just dissolved into leaves and gunpowder?), but I didn't feel nearly as affected. maybe its like killing grimm? I think anyone'd be squeamish first time they got grimm guts all over themselves. Not that I'd really know what everyone else was like.

sunrise was when it all went wrong. I was about to go take a well-deserved nap, when I heard some weird, distorted sounds near my shelter. Went out shield-first to find something i hadnt seen before – a really tall, lanky, pitch-black thing just standing there, right next to my wall. It definitely looked hostile, but made no effort to try and attack me.

It just...stood there making these weird noises that almost sounded like speech.

Brought my shield down – still nothing, no attack. It was facing me, but did nothing. Looked it up and down – literal pitch blackness, almost like it was absorbing all light or something

Then I made eye contact

What followed was the most horrifying series of events I had faced in both my previous life and this one. The thing opened its jaw and started SCREECHING. NO GRIMM could ever hope to match that screech. It spooked me so much that I couldnt help but flinch and, more importantly break eye contact.

I think that was a mistake that had almost cost me my second life.

It charged me. In comparison, none of the things that I've faced so far were this fast; that caught me off guard. And then it attacked me – a simple swipe with its slender hand.

almost tore right through my right hand, armor and all; huge gash. I swear I could see my bone too.

and it hurt so

f fucking

much

I dont really remember what happened next, though the notches on my shield and cracks on my stone sword paint a clear enough picture (must have acted on my lackluster training alone). I only remember the freak finally falling down and straight up disintegrating

(huge black bloodthirsty thing that also disappears on death? Maybe im not the only "visitor" from Remnant? Hadn't heard of this kind of Grimm before, but maybe theyre rare or just cause I was a first year)

The adrenaline must have helped me some, cause I cant really feel my right hand right now, so Im doing my best to write by alternating both. The First Aid class never covered this...

Im not going near these black nightmares ever again.

The sun is almost up now. Going to try and get some sleep in. hope the nightmares wont be too bad.