Jolting awake, Nat opened frantically her eyes. Some kind of sound awoke her, but she didn't register if it was a threatening one or not.
Looking at her surroundings and finding no monsters in sight, her heart calmed a bit. She however chose to eat her breakfast in the tree, not completely reassured.
Few minutes later, Nat was drinking a last sip of water when she saw something move on the ground, ten or fifteen meters away. She used Inspect immediately and saw :
*Horned-rabbit Level 1
Hp : 30/30*
“Oh my, so cute !”
Hurriedly climbing down the tree, Nat finally stood on the ground. She slowly walked toward the cute bunny to see it better.
The rabbit stopped munching on the grass and looked her way. His ears were twitching like he looked apprehensive of the human before him.
At this sight, Nat slowly flexed her knees and showed her hand.
The rodent hopped toward her hand to…and bit her viciously.
*-6hp*
Nat cried in pain at the sudden bite. She tried to crawl away but the damn critter followed her.
In distress, she searched for her dagger with her uninjured left hand. Finally having a grasp on it, her knuckles clenched on the handle, and she tried to block another incoming attack.
*-6hp*
Having missed ridiculously, Nat rolled on the ground to make the rabbit lose his grip on her left forearm. She was now at a more reasonable distance of him, and the critter didn't seem to want to run away. The horned rabbit charged head down, his horn menacingly pointing toward her. As the rodent jumped at her, Nat slashed the dagger towards his exposed belly.
!-8hp!
Weirdly snarling in pain, the little attacker crashed on the ground. Inhibited by the fear and the adrenaline, Nat attacked again, but her attack was blocked by the rabbit's horn. The horn broke with a creaking sound and fell on the grass.
*-1 durability of Iron dagger*
The attack didn't took any of the enemy's hp, but at least deprived him of one of his weapons.
Nat reaffirmed her grip on the slippery handle, and approached reluctantly towards her victim.
The rabbit exposed his protruding teeth and jumped at her throat. Having predicted the attack, Nat sidestepped clumsily and striked again. The blade transperced the rabbit between the ribs with a disgusting sound.
!Critical attack -13hp!
*You've learned Dagger Mastery*
“I need to attack again, he is down at 9/30hp”
Nat tried to remove the dagger from the dying rabbit but without success. Remembering the horn, she walked a few steps and picked it. Nat looked at the bloody rabbit and reprimed a sob. His corpse was impaled on the ground, his breathing agitated. Blood was oozing out of his wounds as Nat came back besides him.
Tears striking now her face, she pierced her heart to stop his suffering.
*Critical attack -13hp!*
*Congratulations, you've killed your first monster ! +50 exp *
Nat looked at her bloodied hands, sobbing uncontrollably.
~~~
After regaining control of her emotions, Nat looked at the corpse. She removed the horn of the still hot body, and clutched the dagger. The blade was still embedded to the hilt in the abdomen's rabbit. With a grunt of effort, she dislodged it.
“Gosh I cannot waste the meat, but my vegetarian self is disgusted at the idea of eating flesh… Well at least he lived a free life into the woods.. Now, how the hell am I gonna do this crap ?!”
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Before doing anything, she washed her wounds and looked at her health points. She was down to 68/80 after her fight, so nothing really life-threatening… She didn't have anything to bandage it, so she hoped it would cure by itself.
Finally ready, Nat began to cut the skin around the four paws. After cutting a line linking the back paws, Nat tried to peel of the skin.
After few minutes of bloody effort, she managed to peel the skin up to the head. She now had to cut the head off. Wincing at the idea, Nat began to saw the head.
One hour later, Nat put the horn and the meat of the rabbit in her Inventory. She also had kept few bones, in case she needed some to make needles. She thanked herself for reading a lot of books about Prehistory and the like. Knowing that the skin of the rabbit needed to dry, she attached it on her waist with her belt.
On the ground, rested the remnants of the head and the offals she didn't want to eat. She had removed the brain from the skull (yep totally gross), because she would need it to prepare the skin.
She had gained the unwelcomed skill Butchering while working, and feeled like a murderer. She drank a bit of water and tried to wipe of her hands on the grass, as cleaning her now dirtied soul.
Walking away of her slaughtering spot, the young girl tried to find stones to grind the bark in powder.
After walking for a quarter of an hour, she was in possession of a large flat stone and a big rock who would be used as a pestle.
Sitting on the ground, she began to make the cicatrising powder. She obtained the skill Alchemy by using two of her five pieces of Medium bark of Elbir Tree. The result was two big portions of Cicatrising powder of Elbir Tree.
*Cicatrising powder of Elbir Tree x 2
A grinded powder of bark. Has cicatrising properties which hasten the cicatrisation.
Regeneration of hp loss because of open wounds × 2*
“Duh I don't even know my own regeneration in normal case. Let's do some experimentation…”
Nat opened her Status and counted time between every hp regenerated. The result was simple. One hp was recovered every half an hour. So she would regain her now nine missing hp in four hours and an half. According to the description of the powder, it would reduce this time to only two hours and a few minutes.
Nat happily sprinkled one tenth of one powder on her bloody hand and forearm.
She now needed some container for the rest of the powder. She tried to make a little bag using leaves, but it wasn't containing the powder properly so she discarded the idea. She then thought of the unused skin of the rabbit.
She took the mildly dried skin from her waist, and began to scrape the leftover flesh on the skin with her weapon. She knew her work was awfully done, but that was the best she could do with her current time and resources. She should have dried it way longer, and washed it with a lot of water. She would have then moistened it with the brain, and softened it with the help of a frame. For further luxury, rubbing it with fat would make it waterproof and more resistant.
But now that was all she could have done, and she even learned Leatherworking despite her bad work. She managed to cut the skin who wasn't damaged in two circles and perforated the edges of them with a sharpened little bone. She now only needed laces to close the two small pouches. She made makeshift laces with the remnants of the hide, and assembled them with the containers. With that done, Nat got the Tailoring skill which meant that bags were counted as clothes in the system.
She put the powder in the pouches, and put everything besides her dagger in her Inventory.
*Inventory
13/20 places filled
Coins : 0 gold 5 silver 0 copper
- Barley bread x 8
- Canteen of water (5/10)
- Medium piece of bark of Elbir Tree x 3
- Cicatrising powder (Small leather pouch)(18/20)
- Cicatrising powder (Small leather pouch)(20/20)
- Small spear x 4
- Little horn
- Meat of Horned-rabbit
- Brain of Horned-rabbit
- Little bone x 5
- Sharpened little bone
- Flat stone
- Pestle of stone*
She had inspected the new objects and realised that the meat wasn't perishable while in the Inventory, same as the leather pouches who wouldn't rot. Her dagger had lost one point of durability during the combat, and she saw it again while inspecting it.
Her Status showed now her experience :
*Status :
Name : Natasha Hemington
Race : Human
Gender : Female
Age : 19 years old
Level : 1 (60/100)
Class : ???
Titles : ???
Stats :
Health : 80/80 Regeneration : 1/ 30 min
Stamina: 50/50 Regeneration : ?
Mana : 150/150 Regeneration: ?
Attributes :
Vitality : 8
Endurance : 5
Intelligence : 15
Agility: 8
Dexterity : 5
Strength: 7
Wisdom : 13
Charm : 5
Leadership : 0
Luck : 2
Attributes points : 0
*
Judging by the experience she had, she killed her first monster for 50xp, and the rabbit in itself gave her 10xp. Curious about her skills, she said the corresponding command.
*Skills :
-Inspect Beginner 3 (50,4%)
-Crafting Beginner 2 (47,1%)
-Dagger Mastery Beginner 1 (16,2%)
-Butchering Beginner 1 (46,8%)
-Alchemy Beginner 1 (14,3%)
-Leatherworking Beginner 1 (73,4%)
-Tailoring Beginner 1 (0%)
With all those twirling informations in her head, Nat began walking away, continuing her travel.