What are tips and strategies for rock elemental?

I was walking up a mountain on scorched earth the ground…

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7 points 📖 Stories Nov 15, 2024 Report

I was walking up a mountain on scorched earth the ground shook he threw a rock at me I died only on the death screen I learned what a rock elemental is.

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12 points 📖 Stories Apr 1, 2025 Report

Journey Through All Creatures

Chapter 34: Gatekeeper Cave

Note: Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order for Section I, Scorched Earth Exclusives and Aberration Exclusives for Section II and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Phoenix, next chapter in Thorny Dragon.

Cave Chapters Scorched Earth: Part 4/4: The Finale

Chapters to the end of Segment II: 3!!

ARKtic Memories: Part 8/12: Day 9

The sandstorm had long passed. The Yutyrannus, though, was not tamed up yet. Not even halfway. Serenity and Nal sat in their tent, watching the Yutyrannus, and looking around, waiting for Sodden and Dorack to arrive. As they sat and waited, Sodden and Dorack rode their Argy up north, towards the others, and while they did that, Dorack tapped Sodden’s shoulder.

“Hey… uh. So… you know who Tundra is?” Dorack asked. Sodden shook his head.

“No. He your wolf?” Sodden asked.

“It’s a she. And yeah, we tamed her during me and Nal’s time in Snowball. She was with us for 57 days… and I have no idea what happened after we left Snowball but I know we couldn’t get Tundra in a cryopod and back to The Island. So if Jerboa got it in a cryopod, why did he take it to the obelisk at The Island?” Dorack said. Sodden started nodding.

“Hmm. Okay, interesting. And you have no idea what happened right after you left Snowball?” Sodden asked. Dorack shook his head.

“Nope. Neither does Nal. The earliest good memory I have that occurred after we left that place was around 23 days after we left. Last thing I saw in Snowball was a Apex Direwolf, then something just knocked me out. Didn’t find Nal. Day 93 was probably the worst day of that entire adventure. Like… my brain kinda hurt after that day. I barely remember anything on Day 93.” Dorack said. “Wow. You got a concussion or something?” Sodden asked.

“A major one, yes. Slight brain damage, but it was permanent. Never goes away, it’s locked inside your essence, meaning it would have to leave for the damage to go away, and that pretty much means it’s there until I die for good.” Dorack said. Sodden nodded, then looked around. “You seriously remember nothing about that day? Where’s your “Jerboa” friend thing… how can they even use cryopods?” Sodden asked, confused.

“As far as me and Nal are concerned, we remember almost nothing about that day. And Jerboa is a human. I gave him that name because he has an implant attribute where he can detect weather events, like the creature. I did meet him around 4 weeks after we left Snowball, but Tundra was nowhere. Jerboa didn’t seem to remember what happened either. I… I don’t know. So much stuff that happened after Snowball is a blur. Sodden, you know what today is? Today is one full week from the 7-month anniversary of our escape from Snowball. Being trapped in such a cold, difficult, dangerous place for so long, with such extreme stakes… I… I can’t.” Dorack said. Tears began to roll down his cheeks as he sniffled.

“Dorack, you can tell me about it. Just get it out. I can help if you tell me what’s wrong.” Sodden said, looking back at Dorack. Dorack put his head down.

“I’m sorry, dude. I can’t. You don’t understand the trauma and grief that we, along with Nudon, faced during that 3-month period. Red, full name Codred, has never been so devastated since he lost Elaine permanently. This happened a while before you spawned in, Sodden. Around… what, 3 months or something?” Dorack said.

“I spawned in October 20, 2024. When did you leave Snowball?” Sodden asked.

“July 29, 2024. Arrived there April 27, 2024. That was one whole year since Elaine, Codred’s best friend, was killed permanently in an incident at the Strong cave. We were going to do a speech of honor by sending me and Nal to Scorched Earth using every piece of element and tributes we had, to carry the love of Nudon to the Arks, as he said. He liked the place and he wanted some supplies from there. Except… we never made it there. It took them 3 months to find out where we were! I refuse to talk about it. I will not… I will not talk about this. I’m… I’m parachuting the rest of the way.” Dorack exhaled in depression. He then took out a bag, bucked up the ropes on the base, leaped off the Argy, then deployed the parachute. He floated north. Sodden only stared, speechless. He put his head down and sighed. Then he got a notification. Dorack sent him a message.

“Just leave me alone, okay? I do not want to talk about ARKtic anymore.” Sodden then sighed and the Argy kept flying forward, its wings flapping hard.

~~~~

Day 9 of ARKtic

84 days before Nal and Dorack’s escape

“A Tough Storm”

It was quiet. Too quiet. That day in Snowball, the wind was soft, the temperature was at -4 degrees, and the creatures were scarce. Under normal circumstances, Nal and Dorack would be doing great at this point. But the XP gain inside Snowball is 5%, so leveling was a real grind. The lack of explorer notes made it way harder. Nal and Dorack stuck to killing deer, penguins, and fish. They could kill sabers with a bola and bow. But even though they could kill stuff, the cold made it almost impossible. They had to grind wood, flint, stones, and thatch for loads of torches and campfires, they had to stay in their base, near the gray obelisk, so they didn’t have much time to kill things. They only managed to get to Level 13. They did not have hide armor, they only had cloth. They held a torch all the time. Their thatch hut near the obelisk was only 2 by 3, and had 8 standing torches in it, along with 6 campfires. They had over 7 stacks of wood inside of a storage box next to the door. Nal sat near the door and storage box, looking around frantically. Dorack then ran through the door, bursting it open and making a crash sound. Dorack then turned and shut the door again. He was shaking, his arms crossed and his hands on his shoulders. “It is stupidly cold out there. If something doesn’t change soon, we will die.” Dorack said. Nal nodded in agreement.

“At least nothing wants to eat us today.” Nal said. Dorack sighed and shook his head.

“There are still creatures out there, and going too far from the base means death. And the problem is, there’s almost no trees close by. The jungle over a 30 minute walk from here is the closest we have now. Even if we got there, we would have to face the immense amount of creatures there. Wolves, purlovia, alpha creatures, Rexes, Yutys, and if we’re not careful… we could get frostbite again.” Dorack said. Nal sighed and turned her head to the closed door. “What are we going to do about this?” Nal asked.

“I don’t know. But… we need to find a way.” Dorack said. Nal nodded.

“The 90-minute limit outside is barely working anymore. We’re running low on stuff. That wood we have is our last supply. We still need levels for hide armor and we need more fortitude in our stats.” Nal said. Dorack nodded. The two then walked to the standing torches, which sat on the right corner of the hut, next to the campfires on the left corner. “Okay. Let’s heal up, then we’ll find some creatures to kill.” Dorack said. Nal nodded. They both took out 50 pieces of wood, then put 10 in each standing torch, and took out a fint and a stone. They scraped them together above the wood, until some sparks flew from the rocks and onto the wood, igniting them and creating a fire. They did this for the other 3 torches, They then put their supplies back in their bags. The fires crackled as they lit up the dark room, and gave warmth to the two survivors. “That feels good.” Dorack said. Nal nodded. They stood close to the fires, then sat down beneath them. Nal and Dorack looked at each other. “Just think. If we went into that ascension path an hour earlier that day, we wouldn’t have been launched here.” Dorack said. Nal sighed.

“Don’t blame yourself. We did not see it coming. We should’ve been more careful.” Nal responded.

“True. We’re going to survive this, though, right?” Dorack asked. Nal nodded.

“We’re going to do our best to survive until the day we can go home.” Nal said, smiling. Dorack smiled too, then they fist bumped each other.

~~~~

Around 15 minutes later, Sodden and Dorack, one on the Argy and the other on a parachute, were approaching the mountains. They found the area where Serenity had set up camp, along with Nal. Closer to the peak of the mountain, was a flat area with a bunch of rocks and some catcuses. In the center of the area was a tent, and just to the left of the tent, a few meters from it, was a trap. A 2 by 2 stone floor wth doorways 2 walls tall, surrounding the platform. A unconscious Yutyrannus sat inside of the trap, its breaths slow and quiet, its mouth quietly crunched down on some prime meat inside of its inventory. Sodden approached the tent, then when he landed his Argy, he got off of it, took a cryopod from his bag, and put the Argy inside. He then walked to the tent, along with Dorack, and Serenity and Nal heard footsteps outside the flaps, then stood up and walked out of the tent to see Sodden and Dorack standing before them. “I saw the message you sent to Sodden. Sodden, something wrong?” Nal asked to Sodden.

“No, not really. I was hoping Dorack would open up about this ARKtic thing.” Sodden said. Nal sighed.

“There’s a reason why we don’t talk about it. That whole thing changed me and Dorack forever in ways you wouldn’t understand. Sure, you’ve been here on the cusp of 4 months, but you haven’t been trapped away from friends for 3 months, in a dangerous place, or any of that stuff.” Nal said.

“Yeah, but the thing is, this mission as a whole… that’s just a lot worse. Because it’s not creatures we have to face.” Sodden said. Serenity walked closer to him then turned to Nal.

“I agree. Terad has some people spread across different Arks. There could be people here and we wouldn’t know. Getting caught by Terad is not an option. I have seen his power, what he can do. He has this mad idea… something with the Assassin Heart. I don’t know what it is, but it may have something to do with why we went to Aberration in the first place. Getting there will help us find answers. Let’s not worry about ARKtic right now, okay? Let’s worry about what we need to do.” Serenity said. Then before anyone could say anything else, they heard crunching and turned around. They saw the Yuty eat another piece of meat from its inventory, its head slightly lifted, then after it stopped eating its head went back down. “Okay, so should we just go to the Crag cave?” Dorack asked.

“Hold on. We still haven’t done something.” Sodden said. He then turned to Serenity.

“So… we saw a wolf in the cave we just went to. It was not normal. It had these weird ice powers, and it was a unclaimed Level 710. Her name’s Tundra. She was Dorack and Nal’s wolf from when they were in Snowballl. We were wondering how the wolf got here, and I wanted to ask if you or Terad found a cryopod in a obelisk while you and your tribe were here?” Sodden asked.

“Hmm. I think I might know of something. Terad once went to the green obelisk to look at the tributes for traveling to Aberration without ascension, because, you need specific supplies to do that and we had an explorer at the time, and he found a cryopod inside of it. I think he said it was useless so he flew to the only cave with wolves on this map, aka the Crag cave which you guys went to, and he threw it hard and far into the cave. He then just left. Never saw the cryopod again after that. I don’t know how it got into that obelisk if Tundra was in Snowball Earth.” Serenity said. Sodden gasped.

“That says it all. Tundra is back. She’s just right there, in that cave. But how did she get here in the first place? Like, who put it in an obelisk?” Dorack pondered. Nal shrugged.

“Maybe Jerboa did it. I don’t remember him doing it, though. But why would he do it?” Nal said. “We could use an obelisk to communicate this with Red to find out.” Sodden suggested. Nal nodded, and so did Dorack.

“That could work. Why don’t we get to the Gatekeeper cave and close out the caves? You and Serenity can stay here and monitor the Yuty.” Dorack said, facing Nal. Nal and Sodden nodded. “It’s diagonal on the other side of the map. It’ll take at least 2 hours to get there with our Argy. The Yuty will definitely be tamed long before we return. So I’m thinking that Serenity and Nal will finish the Yuty tame, then go back to base where we can start working on our Rex army. Hey, maybe we can go for some Wyverns now.” Sodden said.

“That’s a good idea. We can use the moth to get to the World Scar. We’re next to it, but I want to get back to base and get prepared.” Nal said. Dorack chuckled and turned to the path down to the base of the mountain. Sodden turned to Dorack then took a cryopod from his bag. He threw it at the ground, and an Argy came out. Sodden and Dorack hopped onto it. “Introduce me to Tundra when you get back, okay?” Serenity asked. Sodden turned around and nodded. “Introduce me to the Yuty when we get back, okay?” Sodden asked. Serenity nodded. Sodden looked forward and the Argy roared as it lifted its talons off the ground and started flapping its wings. It roared as it flew forward, flying southeast at a slow rate. It would take a while to get to the cave, but all this grinding would be worth it at the end.

~~~~

The jungles of Snowball are cold, snowy, and deadly. Filled of Direwolves, purlovias, Yutyrannuses, Carnos, and more. There are so many direwolves, Alpha Direwolves spawn often. These aren’t the alphas you’d think are from the Primal Chaos mod. They’re stronger, around 2 times stronger than these, as strong as Alpha Carnos, have a gnash ability, and are way faster. Nal and Dorack were standing at the edge of the jungle, almost half an hour from their base. Their feet were shaking, their bodies were shaking, they swung their hatchets against trees to collect wood and thatch for the base. They had to replenish supplies as soon as they could. Nal and Dorack could barely hit the trees; their hands were shaking and their breaths were cold. Their feet began to sink in the snow, their cloth armor beginning to wear down. Nal slowly walked to Dorack. Dorack stopped cutting down one of the trees and turned around. “So… how much… we have…” Dorack shivered. Nal sighed heavily. “Around 2 stacks for me. How much do you have?” Nal said coldly.

“Over a stack. Let’s just get out of here.” Dorack said. Nal nodded, they began to walk the other direction, towards the gray obelisk. They walked slowly, holding each other and shivering. Their left hands had a torch in it, but it did almost nothing. Snowball’s temperature was extreme, making it almost impossible to survive in this Ark. A survivor with zero fortitude, no armor, and no levels can only survive 3 hours in such weather. The worse the cold and condition, the less that timeframe is. They gasped heavily as they trudged through the snow slowly and carefully. Their footfalls crunched down the snow, they could see their cold breaths. After a few minutes, they began to walk faster. They walked at a fast pace, then as they held hands, they began to jog across the snow. The wind was soft, so they wouldn’t have to worry about frostbite. But when they looked up, they realized they would have to worry about something worse. Much, much worse.

“Oh, my sweet Jasper berries.” Dorack gasped, horrified at what he and Nal saw. Nal’s jaw dropped, and she had a terrified look on her face. They had seen a bundle of large dark clouds on the horizon, and the dark clouds rumbled quietly, flashing white occasionally.

“Oh, no. No… no! We’re not ready for that yet!” Nal screamed. “We just need to get back to base fast.” Dorack said, determined. He gripped Nal’s hand tighter and lifted his heavy legs to run faster. Their footsteps grew louder as they used their remaining energy to dash all the way back to base.

A snowstorm was coming. Two Level 13 survivors would have to take extreme measures to survive such thing. It could exert over -30 degrees of cold, and down to -50 degrees on a cold night. In other words, a snowstorm was the biggest challenge any survivor in Snowball could face.

~~~~

Two hours in the hot sun had made the two survivors sweaty. Their palms were sweating badly, but the desert cloth was keeping them from getting hot stroke. But even then, they were still hit. Sodden was quietly panting, and so was Dorack. He took a water jar from his bag and opened the lid, then drank down some water. He drank for 9 seconds, then put the lid back on the jar and put the jar back in his bag. Dorack had hydrated a few minutes earlier. The survivors looked down and saw their Argy soaring across the dunes of Scorched Earth, approaching what seemed to be a ruined building, with trees lined up on the front. This was the Artifact of the Gatekeeper cave. The Old Tunnels. (Author’s note: I am aware I switched the Destroyer and Gatekeeper caves. Please just go with it.) Sodden and Dorack descended towards the ground on their Argentavis, then approached the building entrance, where there was a large opening in the floor, and a ramp that went down into a cave. Sodden and Dorack hopped off their Argy, then Sodden took a cryopod from his bag and put the Argy inside of it. Then after Sodden put the cryopod back in his bag, the two survivors walked to the cave entrance, then Dorack took a cryopod from his bag, threw it at the ground, and an Alpha Raptor came out. Then Sodden and Dorack hopped on it, and began walking down to the cave. Sodden then opened his mouth to say something. “Dorack, have you thought of a name for the raptor yet?” Sodden asked. Dorack turned around.

“Not really. I might think of one soon, though. We know it’s a female. It’s a cool color, white on the head and back, red on the belly and legs. Its feathers are green, too. I don’t have much on my mind about what this guy’s name is. Anyway, let’s continue on.” Dorack said. He whistled and pointed forward, and the raptor roared and ran. It ran around the bend just at the entrance, and saw a bunch of spiders, a few bats, and some weird shaped rocks at the narrower tunnel. “Okay, let’s do this.” Dorack said. He whistled attack and the raptor roared as the crowd of spiders crawled to the raptor. The raptor lunged at the two spiders in front of the group and raised its claws, then when it hit the ground its paws hit the spiders heads, scratching their heads, then the raptor screeched and swung its claws downward, cracking open the abdomen of the spiders. Then Sodden reached into his bag and took out a shotgun. He aimed it at the spiders, and while the raptor jumped at spiders, eating their heads off, Sodden gripped on the saddle with his right hand and shooting down the bats and spiders with his left hand. Dorack held the Raptor’s tail tightly and sat up too. The raptor was crunching down spiders with its mouth and clawing others. Then they heard a loud screech and Sodden saw some rocks flying at the raptor. The raptor saw this, but the two rocks hit it in the head, causing the raptor to get launched backwards and the two survivors to fall off. The alpha raptor fell over, its head damaged badly. “It took a lot of damage. Should we keep fighting?” Sodden said as he got up and brushed sand off his desert cloth pants. Dorack got up too.

“I don’t know, but let’s decide fast!” Dorack yelled. He ran down the path, then Sodden reached into his bag quickly and yanked a cryopod out. He then threw it at the ground. Reaper came out. Sodden and Dorack got on and Reaper began to run down the path. The alpha raptor got up, dizzy and hurt, then screeched quietly as it followed Reaper down the cave. As it did this, a sabertooth on the wall leaped down to the ground, and the two rubble golems roared as they began running. The golems would definitely be what ended Reaper and the Alpha Raptor if Sodden and Dorack weren’t careful.

~~~~

5:30 PM

15 minutes before Snowstorm arrived

Nal and Dorack had just burst the door open on their base. They lunged forward, and hit the thatch floor, gasping in exhaustion. Dorack then leaped up and slammed the door.

“This thatch hut will not hold up against that snowstorm. Okay… we have a lot of thatch, wood, and quite a good amount of fiber. But the problem is, the wind can break the thatch, and also put out our fires. Wood will work well too, but our wood supplies are not good enough for both a wooden hut and fuel for hours. We have 10 and a half stacks of wood. 1,053 wood, to be exact. We need a good ceiling and good walls to keep ourselves warm during the storm. Okay… so… because sunset is soon, we can expect an average of -38 degrees. That combined with the wind… it can get to around -60 if the wind is bad enough. That means windows breaking can mean almost certain death. We need to just have no windows and doors. So… let’s get started.” Dorack said. Nal nodded. Dorack took 5 stacks of wood, a few stacks of thatch and 2 stacks of fiber from his storage box and walked to the door. He then took out his hatchet and swung it downwards with brute force, cracking the door hard. Dorack then kicked it hard and the door flew backwards, shattering. Dorack then demolished the doorway the same way and put up a wooden wall, with wood, fiber holding the logs together, and thatch to keep it stable. It helped against the door. There was one closed window on the left side of the house, and Dorack threw the wood towards the window, then walked to the window and picked up all the wood. He bashed down the wall and window, then put up a new wooden wall there. “Okay, so a stack of wood will last us through the night. But shelter is the real problem. The wind out there can get bad. Our thatch will collapse. We need a wooden box inside of this place. And fast. We also need at least 8 standing torches to last us, so let’s hope we don’t have to use too many supplies to make the shelter.” Dorack said. Nal nodded. They walked to the standing torches at the wall, moved three of them closer to another two, then moved one in the right corner towards the center, then Dorack took out a log, used fiber and thatch to create a small bowl inside of that log, then put some wood in it, using the fiber to protect the wood from the fire. He did this with another log, then put up the two standing torches he just made. “Okay, now we just need to box ourselves in.” Dorack said. “Are we going to have enough food or water to last?” Nal asked. Dorack sighed.

“I don’t know. Let’s just hope we do.” Dorack said. He then took out the wood, thatch, and fiber, put some walls up with the supplies, then sat down on the foundation the torches were on and put some wood and fiber tied together on it, cruushing the thatch below. It would reinforce the foundation, and they hoped it would be enough. They then put up a wooden ceiling using the wood, tying the logs to the top of the ceiling. The ceiling was two walls high, sitting above the torches and there was a second layer of 4 walls above the foundation. Dorack still had 6 stacks of wood. Splitting all 600 wood across the torches, they could put 75 wood in each torch, meaning the fuel would last them 8 hours. They also had torches if they needed them. Dorack put the pile of 75 wood in each standing torch, took out a flint and a stone, then bashed them together and scraped the flint along the surface of the stone. Holding it over the first torch, he keppt doing this until it caused sparks to fly onto the wood, igniting it. Dorack did this with the other torches, then they heard rumbling as Dorack was igniting the last torch. “It’s here.” Nal said nervously. “Let’s hope this is enough.” Dorack said. He finished igniting the last standing torch then walked to Nal, who stood against the wall. The snowstorm had arrived.

See the struggle at the end of the chapter! (We got a cave to finish.)

~~~~

Sodden and Dorack ran on their raptors towards the artifact chamber. They ran hard, but spiders would not stop launching webs at them. The spiders continued to web them as they ran, and the raptors tried their best to ignore them. There was also some wolves and a mantis coming. Sodden and Dorack knew they could not risk anything. There was a ton of creatures going for them, along with the two rubble golems. The spiders crawled along the tunnels, following the raptors. A mantis sat behind the crowd of spiders. The alpha raptor was injured and dizzy. The raptor was running slowly, growling weakly and whimpering. “The alpha raptor is badly hurt.” Dorack said.

“That’s not good. We’re going to have to continue on Reaper.” Sodden said. The two survivors found a rock, got off their alpha raptor, then Dorack took a cryopod from his bag and put the alpha raptor in it. Then the two survivors got on Reaper and they dashed further into the cave until they found the room. Some deep cliffs. Spikes on the bottom of the cliffs. The podium over the small but deadly dropoff held the artifact container, and Reaper walked up the path leading to it. Sodden approached it, then got off Reaper and ran to the container. Sodden then pushed the lid off, groaning as he went, until the lid fell off and made a crash as it hit the ground. Sodden then lifted the Artifact of the Gatekeeper out of the container. He put it in his bag. Sodden walked to the raptor, panting, then got on. “Okay, all artifacts secured. All that’s left is preparation.” Sodden said. “Now we just gotta get out of here.” Dorack said. “How will we do that?” Sodden asked. The raptor began running down the path and towards the tunnels that led to the cave entrance. The spiders were coming, so the raptor jumped over the spiders as webs began soaring through the air, some hitting the raptor. The mantis then lunged at the raptor, then Sodden shot it down with his shotgun. Reaper continued to run, but the spiders were coming, and one had its mouth open, about to bite the tail, then Sodden turned around and shot down the creatures coming for him. They were clearing out creatures easily, then as they began to approach the cave entrance, something flew at the raptor. Reaper screeched and tried to jump out of the way, but the rock missed his tail and hit Sodden’s leg hard, causing him to shout in pain and drop the shotgun, then fall off the raptor. A rubble golem sat at the entrance. Sodden could not get up, and the spiders were coming. Reaper roared and ran at Sodden. Reaper looked at the spiders deeply, growled loudly, and leaped at one, sinking its teeth into its head, and ripping up its body. There were 6 spiders, though, and the others were surrounding them. Dorack got off of Reaper and walked to Sodden, who was on the ground, groaning. “Oh, my god. This is bad. Okay…” Dorack said, then the rubble golem roared, yanked a rock out of the ground, and launched it at Dorack. Dorack picked up Sodden with his hands and walked to the other side, dodging the rock. Reaper then ran for Dorack, causing the rock to hit three of the spiders and smushing them almost instantly. “We just have to get back to the base as fast as we can!” Dorack said. He ran to the opening just ahead, barely outrunning the rubble golem coming. Reaper screeched and ran at the golem, then tried to bite its back, but it pulled its teeth away and screeched in pain. “Just go!” Dorack yelled. Reaper growled as she ran towards Dorack, dodging another rock. As they rose from the church, Dorack immediately put Sodden on the hard concrete floor then took a cryopod out. He threw it at the ground, releasing the Argy, then Dorack took out a brace, along with some bandages, and put the gauze on Sodden’s wound, which was on his left leg, then put the brace on the bandages, holding them on. “You good?” Dorack asked. Sodden was panting in exhaustion, wincing in pain. Dorack sighed and stripped the brace onto Sodden’s leg to tighten it and stabilize the wound. “Okay, how can we get back in this condition?” Dorack asked. Then they heard growling. Dorack took out another cryopod, put Reaper in it, then picked Sodden up again and sat him up on the front of the Argy, holding his back. Sodden was conscious, though, and he held the saddle with both hands, His leg, though, would be unbalancing the Argy, so Dorack dropped some stone, then the Argy took off from the ground and roared as it began flying back north. It would only take over an hour to get back to the base. Nal and Serenity had tamed up the Yutyrannus and brought it back to the base, and Rod had carried some metal back to the base too.

After around an hour, Sodden and Dorack approached their base on the Argy, and Nal stood on the front porch. “You’re back. We started breeding our Rexes and we also got a saddle for the Yuty thanks to the metal Rod collected.” Nal called out. Dorack heard this and when the Argy landed, he and Sodden hopped off. Sodden limped over to the door. Nal gasped as she eeyed Sodden’s injured leg. “What happened in that cave?” Nal said in shock.

“Got hit by a rubble golem on the way out. We’re still alive, though, and that’s all that matters.” Dorack said. Nal sighed.

“You said you got some metal?” Sodden asked. Nal nodded.

“Rod went out to get some. I don’t think he went anywhere else, though. His metal pick was way more damaged than it was at noon, so he definitely was collecting metal. Yeah, it’d be faster to get an Anky.” Nal said. “Right, but we don’t exactly need that much stuff, do we? We just need good weapons, which we can get from desert drops. Why don’t we go out and farm some later?” Sodden asked. Nal nodded, then they heard the door creak open, and Serenity walked out of it. “Okay, guys. If we’re settled down, then why don’t we go inside? We can plan out what to do for the remainder of Scorched Earth.” Serenity said. She then saw Sodden holding the railings on the stairs. “Dude, what happened in that cave?” Serenity said.

“We got attacked, that’s what happened.” Sodden said. Dorack then walked up to him. “Hey, by the way, sorry for being kinda rude to you earlier. I just have a hard time ignoring Arctic. This… this adventure is bringing it all back. I don’t like that and I don’t want to think about that. Everything we were through there…” Dorack said, then Sodden cut in. He put his hand on Dorack’s shoulder. “It’s okay. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. I won’t pressure you anymore. Come on. Let’s get out of this heat.” Sodden said. Dorack chuckled, then everyone walked to the door. They went into the base, and Serenity closed the door after she walked in.

~~~~

Day 10 of ARKtic

83 days before Nal and Dorack’s escape.

1:15 AM

The snowstorm had been raging on for hours now. Very, very early on the morning of Day 10, the snowstorm was still roaring. The wind was hard, the snow pushed hard. The thatch walls and some of the foundations were broken, some destroyed. The ceiling had collapsed. Inside of the box, Nal and Dorack had ran out of wood. They held each other tightly, inside of a sleeping bag. The dying torchlight of the 8 standing torches only had a few pieces of wood left. They used the supplies from the other campfires and their box just to fuel it for a few more hours. But it was not enough. There was snow piled up across the broken hut, and piles of snow scattered across the land. The wind was raging hard. Nal and Dorack shivered as the torchlight grew dimmer. Nal looked down onto Dorack’s lap. “Please… please, let this end.” Nal said. The wooden box had begun to wear out at this point. Taking severe damage from the wind, the wood was losing stability. Dorack shivered and gasped as he let out multiple cold breaths. The snowstorm wind was hard. But soon, it would be over. Dorack saw the torchlight almost fade away. 4 standing torches had 20 thatch in them, and another 4 had 10. This was only enough for around 30 more minutes. Then they heard cracking. Dorack gasped. The ceiling was heavy. There was a ton of snow in it, and it was giving out! “Oh, no.” Dorack said.

“What?” Nal said, terrified.

“There is a ton of snow on the ceiling. We need to get it off.” Dorack said.

“But how!?” Nal yelled. Dorack sighed.

“There is only one way. I made a hatch on that ceiling. It’s sealed, and it’s for emergencies. Stay here.” Dorack said. He crawled out of the bag, and Nal gasped. Dorack began to climb the walls to the hatch. He took out a spear and pointed it at the seal. “Brace for impact. We may take some damage!” Dorack yelled. He stabbed the seal hard, bursting the hatch open and launching snow into the box. Dorack yelled in pain as he climbed out of the box, holding the ceiling tightly. He then took out a shovel and began to scrape snow off of the ceiling. He put all his strength, groaning as he strained, pushing against 30 MPH wind and withstanding 40 degrees below zero. Nal sat against the wall, gasping as the snow began to surround her. She hid in the sleeping bag as Dorack pushed the last of the snow away. Dorack then put the last of his fiber and thatch on the ceiling, repairing the cracks that was done. He then got shoved into the hatch, then climbed to the hatch opening, closed the hatch, and took the seal from the right side and clipped it to the ceiling, and used fiber to seal it off completely. Dorack was gasping in exhaustion as he fell to the ground. Nal peeked out of the sleeping bag. There was a pile of snow inside of the box, and the torches were out. “Well… that was risky. But it was worth it.” Dorack gasped as he shivered hard and let out cold breaths. Nal sighed and crawled to Dorack. “You did good. We both would’ve died if you didn’t fix that ceiling.” Nal said. Dorack nodded, then sat up. He walked to the sleeping bag, then he collapsed onto it. He crawled into it, and so did Nal. “You got any fuel left?” Dorack asked. Nal nodded.

“Some, yeah.” Nal said. She got out of the bag and walked to the standing torches.. She only had 50 wood, and she put 10 in each, to ignite 5 of them. After Nal ignited the torches, she went back into the sleeping bag, and they began to close their eyes as they held hands.

6 hours later.

The walls were broken now. The sunlight flowed through the room, snow on the floor, and covering most of the box. But the sun had come up. Nal and Dorack began to open their eyes, staring at each other. “Let’s get up now, okay?” Dorack said. He rubbed his eyes, then he crawled out of the bag and stood up. Nal got up too and let out an exhale. “Well, we survived that.” Dorack said. Nal nodded. The two then walked to the front wall, and Dorack took out his hatchet and bashed it against the wall, shattering half of it. Almost their entire hut was badly damaged, most of it destroyed. The mortar and pestle on the storage box was broken, and some sparkpowder lay on the snow, next to two flare guns. The foundations were badly damaged too. Snow everywhere. Nal and Dorack walked to the sparkpowder. “Well, time to rebuild, I guess.” Dorack said. Nal nodded. They picked up the two flare guns, took whatever sparkpowder was left. Then put the gunpowder that it had produced with the charcoal inside of the flare guns. Then Nal and Dorack pointed the guns at the sky. “So begins…” Dorack said.

“Day 10 on Snowball Earth.” Nal said. They then pulled the triggers, launching the fire balls off onto the sky, warming up the place. The fire balls split and exploded. Nal and Dorack sighed deeply. They then walked towards the gray obelisk to find resources.

—-

…you’ve made it so far…

…next time…

…you will see Day 1 of ARKtic…

…how they got to Snowball, why it happened, and how their first day went…

…you only grow closer to the Segment II Finale…

…In its place is the tribute farming, involving lots of wyverns, the Manticore showdown, and Day 93 of ARKtic…

…Prepare for the end of Segment II, in Chapter 37…

—-

Hope y’all enjoyed this extremely long chapter! Honestly, making this 6.5K words was unexpected, but here we are! This is by far the longest standalone chapter in this story! Anyway, we’re getting close to the end of another long segment and also the halfway point of JTAC. Crazy to think we’re close to the end of the first half of this story. Yet we’ve got so, so much more to go.

Anyway, see ya in the next one!

-RelatingHen8906

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