Chapter 1 Victor Marcus

Waking up early before the sun even appeared, Victor Marcus who was 25 years old this year resolutely slid out of the bed and entered the bathroom to washed himself. Still in his clothes, he poured a bucket of water over his face that thoroughly woke him up.

Shivering from coldness, Victor took off his clothes and continued his bath. After several minutes, he walked out of the bathroom and wore new pair of clothes.

From under his bed, he pulled out a long box and within he took out an impressive looking long bow made of two rare materials. The string was black, durable and resistant to high and low temperature, as expected of the hair from an elite Black Mammoth, while the whole body of the long bow was carved out from a specially processed wood of Cirulas Bamboo, firm yet bendable to some degree.

Victor named the long bow, Cirulas Long Bow. It had already accompanied him for a decade and had been inherited from his dead father that died from a monster's attack.

After finishing gearing himself up, Victor wore the Cirulas Long Bow and the quiver with hundred of arrows and left his small bungalow house built at the outskirt of Ferlan Village.

In this vast world with unknown name, all beings were bestowed with a Skill upon birth and could acquire another Skill when a requirement for learning a certain Skill was met.

There were also other ways to learn a Skill, the most convenient was learning a Skill through Skill Crystal that could only be acquired from all defeated Boss Class Monster within a Dungeon. The drop rate of Skill Crystal was indefinite and no one know what influenced it to drop.

However, the most popular was acquiring a new Job through Job Changing Orb. Such Special Item couldn't be found elsewhere. Within the entire known lands, there were only 99 Job Changing Orb that existed. Some were owned by the royal family of a kingdom, while most of it were in the possession of four known guilds; the Adventurer Guild, the Alchemist Guild, the Blacksmith Guild and the Magic Guild.

The last way to acquire a Skill was by learning it in a very hard way and long process with the help of a teacher. Thus, academies were built.

Victor was born in Ferlan Village. His father and mother died due to monster attack from Luqane Forest. Thus, he became an orphan. But he was already a teenager when that happened, and after mourning his parents death for several weeks, he trained and hunted monsters at Luqane Forest with burning passion and everytime he killed a monster, the same kind as the one that killed his parents, his hatred decreased.

Several years later, his hatred disappeared and he hunted monsters for their a living. Unknown to him, he became a well known figure within the village due to the variations of monsters he always brought back to the village. High Orcs, Hobgoblins, Horned Tigers, Red Hind Bears, Demonic Arachnids and many Elite Class Monsters.

All people in the village knew Victor wasn't strong as the monsters he hunted, yet they died and became a sold goods on his hands. It only indicated his superb hunting ability.

Steadily walking to the Alchemy Shop he patronized for many years, Victor was greeted by people along the way.

"Oh Victor! Going to hunt? If you happen to hunt a Bull Rabbit, please keep the Horn for me!"

"Victor! Still early as usual. If you find a Renaus Flower Vine, please keep it for me! I'll buy it at the same price as before!"

"Victor! Please, hunt a Green Salamander for me! I want the eyes of it!"

"Good morning, Victor. Going for a hunt?"

Victor smiled and nodded in return at all the people whom greeted him, noting to his mind all their demands. When he arrived at the Alchemy Shop, the owner of the shop greeted him. "Oh? Good morning, Victor."

The person before him wore a long blue robe and purple cloak that reached beyond the knees and her black leather boots were visible. A shiny and straight raven black hair crowned her head, emerald eyes filled with wisdom stared at Victor. Her pinkish lips below the small attractive nose moved as she asked with a smile that could make many mens's heart pound. "Are you going for the usual? Or do you want to add something?"

Amellia Prymress was her name, an Alchemist from very far capital or so she said. She arrived at the Ferlan Village weeks after the disastrous monster attack with her father, Felix Prymress, but because of some unknown reason, her father left her to managed the Alchemy Shop.

Victor and Amellia only have one year difference in age, and had a harmonious friendship. Victor smiled and nodded. "Good morning, Amellia. The usual. And oh, add some Juralgun Poison. I'm going to hunt at the hidden ruins I found at the end of Sinow River last time."

Her head perked up. Intrigued, she asked. "Hidden ruins? It's the first time I've heard of such place in Luqane Forest." She frowned and glimpsed at the carefree expression of Victor. "I've read all the informations about Luqane Forest and the surrounding areas around Ferlan Village, but I've never heard about a Hidden Ruins at the end of Sinow River."

Eating some potato chips, Victor turned to Amellia. "I've scouted around it already and I can only say that it was a ruin of a large city. I found many kinds of monster within. Lizardmens, Goblins, Orcs, Kobolds, Arachnids, and many more."

"Are you sure about that?! Why are you so happy about finding such a terrible place?! We need to let the whole village know about it and reported it! What if they tried to attack us?" Amellia exclaimed as she heard the kinds of monsters within the hidden ruins.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Don't worry. Those monsters won't be able to arrived here. They must cross the Sinow River first and foremost. In addition, there is a territorial beast around that area. Once they arrived at the other side of the Sinow River, a Demonic Asura Bear will welcome them with claws and maw." Victor sneered and stood.

Looking incredulously at the man before her, she put the things he bought in a bag. "Five Gold Coins all in all." Seeing Victor's embarrassed face. She added pointedly. "No loans. !"

Victor sighed in defeat. "Alright. Here, that's the last of my expenses..."

Amellia snatched the five gold coins from his hand and threw a small bag at him. "Here are some freebies for buying many of my merchandises."

Victor looked inside the small bag and found several Health Potion. He smiled and grabbed Amellia's hands. "Thanks, Amellia! You're really a good lady!"

Her face reddened as she forcefully pushed Victor out of her shop. "Enough! Leave now!"

The door loudly closed behind him as he obliviously left. "Why did she pushed me out? What's wrong with her?"

Remembering the feel of Amellia's soft hands, he unconsciously looked at his hand and recalled her beautiful face. "But... I never thought her hands are that soft...."

Inside the Alchemy Shop, Amellia's face reddened even more as her chest pound loudly in her ears. "That guy..." Unknown to her, a sweet smile crept on her lips.

Going out of the village, the guards at the west entrance waved him good luck as he did the same.

"Victor! If you happen to hunt a Red Fox again, please keep the fur for me!"

"I want a fang of Dire Wolf!"

"Mine is poison sack of a Black Viper!"

"Alright! I'll note all your request so prepare your money once I return!" Victor shouted back.

Before he could enter and disappeared into the towering trees of Luqane Forest, he heard Amellia's voice at the village entrance. "Victor! Be careful! Don't forget my request!"

He saw Amellia at the west entrance panting heavily. His heart swelled up with glee and he felt reluctant to leave as he gazed at her, but he didn't know why. His lips curved into a smile and shouted back. "I won't!"

At the entrance, the guards teased Amellia. "Hahahaha! And here I thought Ms. Amellia will confess."

"Eh? I thought ms. Amellia and Victor are in relationship. My girlfriend always told me to be careful everytime I go for a duty."

"Ms. Amellia is an outstanding lady, while Victor is the same. They matched each other."

"Shut up!" Amellia blushed from teasing. As she ran back to her shop, she could hear the rang of laughters of the guards behind her.

Entering the Luqane Forest, he looked at his Status.

[Name: Victor Marcus | Age: 25]

[Gender: Male | Race: Human]

[Level: 11 | EXP: 12%]

[Job: Hunter]

[Power: 29 | Dexterity: 32 | Spirit: 25]

[Physique: 33 | Vitality: 31 | Magic: 14]

[Active Skill: Analysis | Screw Stab | Critical Strike | Triple Shot | Power Shot | Trap Search | Trap Make | Trap Disarming | Tracking | Stealth]

[Passive Skill: Enhance Hearing | Low Light Sight | High Olfactory Sense | Shooting Accuracy | Nimble Hands | Ambidextrous | Sneaky Feet]

Apart from Skills, Stats were very important as well. It couldn't be gained as easily as Skills. Increasing a certain Stat needed hard work to breakthrough the limits. For example, Strength. To increased Strength on a hard way, one needed to exert all the strength one had through intense training and exercises.

However, unlike Leveling up that increased over all Stats, training only increased certain Stat.

Leveling up to the next level increased over all Stats. It could only be done by battling against stronger adversary and filling the EXP from 0% to 100%. Once that happened, a person only need to kill one monster a level higher then him/her and he/she would level up, while the EXP would be emptied back to 0%. This was the general path for almost all kinds of Job. Even Alchemist, Merchants, Farmers and other none-combatant Jobs were no exception.

In accumulation of EXP, a monster that was killed personally and at an unfavorable situation could give more EXP, than a monster killed through indirect ways and several levels lower. Upon leveling up, the increase in Stats categorized through the Job the person possessed.

For instance, the Job:Hunter inclined towards Dexterity, Physique and Vitality, therefore the increase of the three Stats were two times greater than the Strength, Spirit and Magic.

Victor had killed most monster through the traps and ambush, thus he accumulated EXP very slowly and the increase in Stats weren't that great.

On this journey to the hidden ruins of a city, Victor decided to not relied on his traps, but fight head on with bow and arrows. Being in life and death battle had its reward. The increase of his stats if he level up would be greater. He heard that most Adventurers become stronger that way, by risking their lives.

Leaving no traces as he run, Victor traveled straight to the end of Sinow River for five days and only stopped when he found some rare plants and doing some personal business. He encountered many monsters, but he didn't touched them and stealthily passed through them.

As he arrived at the end of Sinow River, he searched around the riverbank of the raft he made before to cross the Sinow River. Crossing the Sinow River was much faster than circling around it as the end of Sinow River was a very wide lake, but not very deep. It was also the safest, as there were no monsters that lived in the lake.

Dragging the raft to the water, it floated without problems. He grabbed a long stick and used it to propel the raft to the other side as quiet as possible.

After the raft reached the other side, he immediately dragged the raft off the water and burried it beneath the sand, while he also erased his tracks.

He took out a spray bottle from his Magic Storage Bag and spray some on his body to eliminate his original scent. Now, he smell like a wild grass. Sniffing himself, he nodded and cautiously entered the forest as he recalled the path he took from last time.

Walking stealthily for several minutes, he saw the ruins from afar. Ahead of him was a group of goblins with only rabbit fur wrapped around their waists and wooden clubs on their hands. They were easy preys for Victor.

The goblins were heading towards his direction. Thus, he prepared a gift for them. Through Trap Make Skill, he easily made a pit fall trap and covered it with leaves as he waited for them behind the grasses.

"Gubuh ah gukuhahk!"

"Guhak gadihab!"

"Gagak kuha!"

The goblins were shouting at each other. Victor couldn't understand their words and through their high pitch voices and gurgling sounds he thought they were arguing heatedly.

Victor readied his Cirulas Long Bow and arrow as they stepped on the pit fall trap.

"Guahk!"

Four goblins fell in the pit fall trap out of seven goblins. Without letting them rest, Victor shot his three arrows mounted on the Cirulas Long Bow. His Triple Shot Skill showed its might. Three fast arrows whistled through the air and found their targets.

One goblin was shot at the eye and died immediately, the second was shot at the chest and at the death's doorstep, and the third had fast reflexes and evaded the third arrow by ducking down.

Seeing the third arrow missed, Victor shot another one instantly before the third goblin got far. As it was fleeing at one direction, it was no different from immobile target and was shot at nape, boring a bloody hole through the neck.

Victor didn't examined the corpses as he headed to the four goblins in the pit fall trap and kill them with an arrow each. The scent of blood would attract wolves in the place, and so he immediately cleaned the place. He buried all the goblins in the pit fall trap and left without leaving something that could be tracked back to him.