On the next seven dawns, Arum spent her time remembering every nook and cranny of the outer part of the forest. At the end of that first week, she no longer had to walk so slowly, and could sprint her way through the dark forest, checking every gap and hole on the base of every tree in the white zone.

The next seven dawns after that, she spent her time wrestling with Hivehares and Woodwells. She found that both her speed and strength were no match to them. Her hit were often miss, unable to catch up with her preys' fast reaction to dodge and flee. Her strikes were often lacking, unable to kill the fur balls on a single blow. At the end of the second week, she was only able to successfully hunt down two animals per dawn at most.

The next seven dawns after that, she spent her time making a short wooden stake, and a small rectangular wooden plate with a hole on its center. After mulling over and over how to bridge her lack of prowess with her preys', she came to conclusion that the issue was competing with her preys' speed and resilience in the first place. So there she was, sharpening an arm length wooden stake, and puncturing a hole on the center of a square foot wooden plate. After her new tools had been made, she spent the rest of that week to ponder what she should spent her on. Yes, she had leveled up. Successfully killing two animals per dawns for a full week had granted her two levels and 6 free status points.

"Too slow and too weak..." Arum mumbled, complaining out loud of her current state of prowess. Without much thinking, she spent her on [STR] and [AGI], three points each. She could feel the change immediately. He hit became slightly faster, and her strike became a bit harder. At the end of the third week, she was ready to begin anew her struggle for power.

The next seven days after that, she devoted her time on search and kill mission. No longer did she let herself compete with her prey's resilience and agility. No longer did she allowed them to use their advantage and ability. The two tools she had made the week before finally came in play, and she abandoned the knife and hammer she had utilized previously.

She used the wooden plate to block the small cave at the base of the tree that she suspected sheltering her preys, eliminating their escape route completely. Then, through the hole in the center of the plate, she thrusted her short wooden stake . She blindly shoved the stake again and again into the sealed cave until its pointy end impaled something. Then she drew it back, and thrusted it again to injure the resident inside even more.

Her prey retaliated, it slammed its body frantically into the wooden plate that had sealed its escape. The force it used was quiet great, Arum almost lost her grip on the plate. Feared that her prey might escape, she put one foot on the wooden plate, and used her entire body weight to counter her prey's powerful slam. While doing that, Arum intensified her offense, she thrusted her wooden stake more fiercely. After a dozen jabs, a familiar sound rung in her head, and she felt that her prey retaliated no more.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Had grown accustomed to the kill notification, Arum quickly dismissed it from her vision, then it vanished as fast as it appeared.

Arum put back her focus on the next task. She crouched down as low as she could without letting her knees touching the ground, then she inserted her right hand into the small cave at the base of the tree. Feeling the dead animal inside, she pulled it out, then stored it in the small sack that hanged on her waist.

After all was complete, she went to the next tree, sealed the next small cave at its base, and killed her next prey. She repeated her hunting method again and again, for the next 14 dawns. At the end of the fifth week, her level had risen as high as eight, and she got as much as 18 points of free status points in her pocket.

{Processing...}

Arum read the system notification, and felt a wave of relief. She had spent more than a month to pursue this, and now she finally got it. There were many problems and obstacles along the day. For one, her parents had complained about her activity. They had mistaken her action as a desperate effort to earn money for buying a new bed. As she didn't feel alright leaving her parents misled, she explained it to them that it was all just something she wanted to do, and nothing more. She reassured them, and told them to not think of her action too deeply, which the two reluctantly but slowly accepted.

Arum walked out of the forest and proceeded to a clearing, she laid down herself on the grass and stared at the sky. The dawn of today had ended, and the sunrise just began. Yet the two moons and some of the stars were still visible in the sky.

"One month and ten days... One month and ten days..." Arum mumbled, still not believing that she had lived in this game world for five weeks already.

How come she ended up here was still a mystery. What was the entity of the so-called system that lived in her head rent free. Was she alone, or would she encounter another who shared the same fate as her? She didn't know.

And I don't want to know. She thought innerly. I mean, I didn't ask questions when I was on earth. I didn't ask why I was born. I didn't ask what is 'will' and 'soul'. I didn't question my existence when I was on the real world... why would I question my new one now.

Arum sighed, and pushed her existential crisis to the back of her head. She wanted distraction, and so she summoned her personal information from the system, the translucent interface appeared and hovered few centimeters in front of her face.

[STR | 4] ; [VIT | 1] ; [AGI | 4] ; [ARC | 1] ; [DEX | 1] ; [SEN | 1] >