Now that he had this new skill, Gunther was about to go back to thinking about how to increase his mana regeneration when he noticed his mana had gone back up to it’s maximum, which was 100 now.
‘In that case, I’ll try out some ideas about increasing my efficiency at carving.’
The first thing Gunther did was to try and analyse the tree to see if that would yield any results. Looking at the tree, with the help of his new skill of course, he noticed some areas seemed weaker than others. The moment he tried to focus on them, they somehow became more prominent in his vision, while the stronger pieces of wood seemed to get slightly less sharp.
‘This is really useful, I wonder if it is applicable to combat in some way. Maybe I will think of effective strategies easier or something like that…’
Now that he knew what spots to hit, Gunther started to think about how to use his mana to cut deeper into the tree. He started cutting away at the tree while thinking, to make sure he didn’t waste any time. It had been morning during his talk with William and it seemed to be getting close to noon now. Gunther was starting to get hungry, so he took one of the pills he had gotten from William and ate it. The pill tasted absolutely horrible, but it did seem to be highly nutritious. Gunther quickly ran to the river and began drinking in order to get rid of the aftertaste of the pill.
While Gunther was drinking, he didn’t notice the bunny sneaking up on him. Even if he had noticed, he probably wouldn’t have thought it to be a threat. After all, what could a bunny do against a human?
Gunther suddenly felt a sting in his leg and noticed some of his mana leaving him. He quickly turned around to see an innocent looking little bunny, readying itself for another attack. Gunther looked around and thought about his options.
‘It snuck up on me once, so it could probably do it again if it managed to escape. That means I’ll have to make sure I kill it with one hit, or make sure it can not escape. First I’ll have to make sure it doesn’t manage to get another hit on me though. Mana drain attacks are dangerous after all. Dodging towards my tree seems the best option since my axe blade is there.’
Interestingly enough, Gunther didn’t have any problem with trying to kill the bunny, even though the only creatures he had killed before were some bugs. When he saw the bunny jumping towards him, Gunther quickly rolled in the direction of the tree he had been working on the whole morning.
‘Those judo classes sure are useful now. That roll would have been difficult to pull of if I had not been forced to practise it again and again.’
All the little stones laying around dit not make his roll a pleasant one however. Now that he had evaded the bunny’s attack, Gunther ran towards the tree and grabbed his axe blade. When he turned around he saw the bunny approaching him again.
‘If I can dodge it by jumping just a little bit to the side and then strike its neck, I might be able to take it out in one hit.’ Gunther thought and he immediately got a chance to apply his new strategy.
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The bunny lunged at him again and this time Gunther jumped just a little bit to the left, ready to strike the bunny. What he hadn’t expected, however, was that the bunny jumped at him again immediately after landing. The terrible beast managed to bite his left arm this time, making Gunther scream in pain. For some stupid reason, the bunny didn’t have the blunt teeth of a herbivore, but sharp ones that buried themselves into his arm. Gunther's mana began dropping again.
Luckily Gunther didn’t get completely distracted by the pain, which was at least partly because of his dual skill, Gunther suspected. Now that the murderous monster was hanging from his arm, he dropped his weapon and grabbed the beasts paws with his right hand. Gunther pulled at the bunny and screamed in pain when it took a bit of his arm with it.
Now that he was holding it by its paws, the bunny couldn’t do much and Gunther began to think about the most efficient way to finish it off. Even though he wasn’t exactly bothered by the idea of killing the little bastard, he did not think it necessary to be cruel about it. He walked towards the rock he had used to hit his axe blade on and hit the bunny on it with all his 9 strength points. It took a couple of hits and it was certainly not pretty, but in the end the bunny stopped moving.
Now that the bunny was dead, Gunther dropped it and looked at the once clean stone. It was now covered in blood and even a few pieces of brain. The bunny itself was also quite unsightly, its skull was cracked open and its innards were slowly becoming outards.
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Seeing what he had done to the bunny, Gunther ran to the river and threw up in it. He had never quite realised how gory killing could be. When reading it usually wasn’t mentioned and when it was, it wasn’t like he was really there seeing it all. In games and movies it was always tuned down, either the gore wasn’t shown at all or it was made to look less horrific. In real life, he had none of these protections and was forced to look at it in all it’s horrible glory. Something his stomach didn’t really appreciate and neither did he.
When he had calmed down a bit, Gunther returned to the scene of the crime and cleaned it up to the best of his capabilities. While he was cleaning up, he thought about what had happened. He had let his guard down, thinking it surely would not be very dangerous here, even after William had warned him that there were creatures around that could easily kill Gunther. Now that he knew about the dangers, finishing his tree had become even more of a priority to him. Gunther also didn’t think he could handle more fights like the one he had just been in. While he was quite sure he could take on another bunny quite easily now, his arm was still bleeding and he really didn’t want to have to see all that blood again.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Finally done with cleaning up the rock, Gunther carried the body of the bunny to the river and threw it in as far downstream as he could. Hopefully the river would take the bunny a long way away so that it wouldn’t attract other predators.
With the battle and its aftermath finally dealt with, Gunther decided to look at his notifications. He had gained 2 stat points in strength, 3 in constitution and 1 in both agility and wisdom. That was a nice boost, but Gunther suspected he would have gained more if he had had the ability to level up. There was no use in lamenting that fact though, so he looked at the rest of the notifications.
Active skill gained: Dodge lv 3!
You have decided not getting hit is a great way of not dying, good for you!
By dodging an attack using knowledge from your original world, you have gained the skill Dodge.
React faster to attacks and dodge them more easily, higher skill levels grant higher reaction speed.
‘So I get higher skill levels if I use skills from Earth, handy!’
Passive skill gained: Melee Combat lv 1!
Keep hitting it till it dies, the oldest combat strategy known to man. Now you to use it.
By fighting using only melee skills, you have gained the skill Melee Combat.
Improved melee damage by 10%, higher levels increase the boost by 1% each.
That notification was followed by others telling Gunther the skill had increased to level 4.
‘How is not even 5 minutes of combat more effective than nearly 5 hours of carving?! Maybe it is because of the danger that was involved or something, but it still seems somewhat unfair.’
You are bleeding, you will lose 0.25 hp/s
Damage will increase over time if the debuff is not removed
Gunther looked at his hp in a panic, it was at 40/80. He had only 160 seconds to live if he didn’t find a way to deal with it. Luckily Analysation kicked in again and prevented him from panicking.
‘So I will continue taking damage as long as I’m bleeding. I could try to win some time by making the bleeding less severe. Then afterwards I can try to heal myself using mana.’
Now with a plan, Gunther took of his vest and shirt and used his axe blade to cut of a piece of one of the sleeves of his shirt. With trembling hands he clumsily tied the cloth around his upper left arm in an attempt to cut of the blood flow to the rest of his arm. The bleeding slowed down, but didn’t stop completely.
Bleeding slowed down, damage reduced to 0.1 hp/s
As the bleeding is being partially blocked, the damage will not increase over time
Tying the cloth around his arm had taken him about a minute and the damage hadn't increased even more, so he now had 25 hp, or 250 seconds to heal himself. He cursed at himself for not looking at his notifications earlier, as he was sure the damage per second had risen by a significant amount because he would have been dead already if it had started out at 0.25 hp/s.
Since he only had a few more minutes to live if he didn’t do something, Gunther got to work immediately. He activated his Mana Manipulation skill and tried to send some mana to his bleeding arm.
Mana attack deals 1 hp damage
Active skill gained: Hurtful Touch lv 1!
Mana can be used for many things, you have found out how to hurt people with it.
By experimenting on yourself, you have gained the skill Hurtful Touch.
Deal damage by touching someone, damage dealt increases with more mana used.
Current power: 1 hp per mp (resistances not included)
Higher levels: +0.5 hp per mp for each level above lv 1
Extremely glad he hadn’t tried to use more mana, Gunther immediately pulled back. After he made sure he didn’t get any more damage, he sent some mana to his arm again, but now with the explicit intend to heal. It worked and he got another notification.
Healing mana recovers 1 hp
Active skill gained: Healing Touch lv 1!
Mana can be used for many things, you have found out how to heal people with it.
By experimenting on yourself, you have gained the skill Healing Touch.
Heal by touching someone, damage recovered increases with more mana used.
Current power: 1 hp per mp (resistances not included)
Higher levels: +0.5 hp per mp for each level above lv 1
The skill seemed to be the exact opposite of Hurtful touch, but Gunther didn’t have time to think about that. He quickly spent 60 of his remaining mp to heal himself, it was a bit overkill, but Gunther really didn’t care at the moment. He felt the mana enter his arm and watched as his arm was being recovered at an unnatural speed. He saw his own veins growing back and attaching themselves again and saw how skin grew over it. It was fascinating to watch, although it was a bit gross as well.
Bleeding stopped
You have healed yourself back to full health