Grinning in satisfaction, Ander jumped down from the rock to the half squashed corpse below. Despite being in the chasm nearly a week, the Quickened Growth status effect still wasn’t gone, though Ander’s growth had finally started to slow. This meant that Ander was still ravenously hungry, and he eyed the badger with greed in his eyes. Ander fell upon the corpse of the badger and worked quickly to free the good meat from the rest of the corpse. Excited, he took the meat and made his way back to his campsite. Once there, he set up a fire near the mouth of the shelter, spitting the large hunks of meat and setting them to roast before reclining on the bear fur.
Ander sat there as he waited for his meat to cook, and he allowed his thoughts to wander for perhaps the first time since he arrived in this world. Whatever it was called. He really hoped those children survived. They were never supposed to be a part of what was going on. Ander had accepted that there would be collateral damage. It was tragic, but people often died in war, including people who wanted nothing to do with it. But he had expected that to be janitors and maintenance people, not kids.
“Damnit Gabe.” Of course Ander knew it wasn’t all Gabe’s fault. As much as he wanted to blame it all on him. Everyone in the organization hated those god damn life ending irresponsible scientists. Ander supposed that the hatred went deeper than he expected. Ander had never been religious, though his grandparents had tried to make him so. In either case, there was one lesson he had taken from his grandparents, and that was that the sins of the father do not belong to the child. It really made him question the mission that brought the organization together. It had been about saving kids in the first place.
Ander shook the thoughts out of his head, before going to check on the meat. He knew if he let himself he could reflect for hours, and that wouldn’t be good for anybody, much less him. Though he supposed that if there was anything good coming from this, other than being in a real life video game, was the fact that all those birthmarks were gone. Ander smiled at his completely unblemished skin. That made it feel like so much of his past was behind him.
Ander turned the spit, mouth watering as the crispy edges of the meat dripped juice onto the sizzling fire. The aroma of cooking meat filled the chasm, and before long, Ander was removing the smaller pieces and devouring them like his life depended on it.
Ander finished his meal about an hour later and retreated to his cave. Sitting on the giant fur he tried to spend some time in meditation. Try as he might, for whatever reason he couldn’t quite get Walker of Memories to activate. It would be nice to get some supplemental skills to help with his fighting. However, he got the distinct feeling that he was lacking something necessary. Maybe Way of the Wind was too grand a skill. Ander wasn’t surprised that there were limitations on Walker of Memories, it would be a bit too overpowered otherwise. But this was the second skill that had stopped working suddenly. He supposed it wasn’t quite the same with Way of the Wind. He could still use it, he just couldn’t level it up. And so instead of trying to activate Walker of memories, Ander bent his thoughts towards the vision that had awarded him Way of the Wind. Senoc had been the creator of the skill. He had made Way of the Wind from Weapons Master, Fleet Footwork, Dodge, Parry, Sprint and Advanced Tactics. Fleet Footwork was pretty straightforward, as was Dodge, Parry and Sprint. Each one of these were simple abilities, though likely mastered to a great degree. The one skill that was far more complex than the others was Weapons Master. That said, Ander had no clue what Advanced Tactics added to Way of the wind, so maybe that was more complex.
The vision was not all the understanding that had been given to Ander. He had also been given some of Senoc’s impressions of his skills. He could tell that Weapons master was far greater than any single weapon mastery skill, like Sword Master. Weapons Master did not just contain a simple set of movements and contingencies, though those were included. Weapons master was a philosophy on how to move with all weapons, and was different for every person who gained the skill. Ander had received Senoc’s version through Way of the Wind, and it focused on speedy movements and quick strikes, even with the heaviest of weapons, often using the weight of such weapons to move more effectively.
Up until this point Ander had only ever used his longsword, but that wasn’t consistent with Weapons Master, which was used as the base for Way of the Wind. Ander set aside his longsword and picked up his bow and quiver. The only way to know was to try new weapons and see if they worked to level the skill. Ander had held a bow once for a PE class in elementary school, yet the wood of the bow felt familiar in his hand thanks to Way of the Wind.
Ander stood and made his way to the entrance of his cave. It was getting close to evening with everything he had done today, but Ander supposed he could go on one last hunt. He knew that he would want some meat for his last meal of the day in either case. He also wanted to level up more, which meant more killing. The killing part he was fine with. Survival makes you get over any squeamishness quite quickly. But it felt wrong to leave piles of bodies in his way. Killing for food or survival was one thing. Unbalancing entire ecosystems was another all together. Still, the farther he made it into the chasm, the scarier the monsters seemed to get. The bear was the exception, but Ander felt like it had been pulled out of its normal routine when it smelled the smoker Ander had set up. Which meant that leveling might be required for survival.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Eventually Ander decided that for now, he wouldn’t go on any animal genocides. He would travel deeper into the chasm and only attack the creatures that attacked him first, unless he was hunting them specifically. It seemed like a good compromise. And so Ander headed out with his bow and arrows to find some more prey in the last few hours of light he had left.
Fortunately for Ander, it was not long before he found what he was looking for. He found another group of those furry wild pigs. This group had a number of piglets as well, though these were larger than a full grown large pig back on earth. He figured that at that size, they would likely be good on their own. He wouldn’t kill them, but the two large sows and the boar would sate his appetite. Ander drew an arrow and nocked it to the string, and felt the wind start to curl around the arrow. He pulled back, aimed, and fired at the boar.
The arrow was sent tearing away, the wind parting before it. In an instant it was buried deep into the boar’s lungs. The boar tried to roar, but could only let out a pitiful raspy sigh as it got wobbly and then slumped to the ground. But by then, two more arrows had already been loosed, and the two Sows were down as well. One had been pierced through the heart, and one through the brain. To Ander’s delight, new notifications popped up.
Congratulations! You have killed an Iron Tusk Boar, level 4.
XP earned.
Congratulations! You have killed an Iron Tusk Boar, level 4.
XP earned.
Congratulations! You have killed an Iron Tusk Boar, level 4.
XP earned.
You have leveled up! You are now level 4.
+2 Conductivity
+2 Wisdom
+2 Regeneration
+1 Beauty
+2 Presence
+20 free stats.
Congratulations! Skill: Way of the Wind has leveled up!
Skill: Way of the Wind is level 5.
Ander was beyond thrilled to see that Way of the Wind had leveled up again. It had started to worry him, as that skill was the only reason he was able to fight these creatures. He highly suspected that if he had a basic weapon skill he would have died against the bear at minimum, if not the second boar he fought. While the Iron tusk boar was level four, Ander suspected that without a legendary skill, it would take multiple level four people to take it out.
However, sniping really wasn’t Ander’s style. He would do it if necessary, but killing something from a distance was nothing like fighting it in melee. Sure it required skill, but there was no thrill to it. Maybe he could work the bow into a melee fighting style. He couldn’t block or parry with this bow, but if he used his knife…
As Ander drew his knife he felt wind wrapping around both weapons. With the knife in his right hand and his bow in the left, he had just enough use of his right hand to draw the bow while still retaining the knife. This would give him the flexibility to shoot and strike in close succession. Any time he shot he would open up for attack, which meant that he had to fight defensively most of the time, and avoid being locked down. While he had his knife, that was a poor substitute for the defensive power of a shield or even a sword. However anything larger than his knife would be too cumbersome to use while trying to draw the bow string.
Ander decided he would try out this new weapon combination, but it would have to wait for tomorrow. For now, he had to go get his dinner, though he wouldn’t eat for hours yet.
Ander sprinted to the pigs, and one by one, cut his arrows out of their carcasses, before removing the meat he wanted. Part of him wanted to pit cook one of the pigs whole. He had meat made like that at a Luau he attended as a kid, and always wanted to try it out. However with creatures this size it would probably take a week to cook correctly, and with the giant compound beneath him, there was no good location to bury the thing. With disappointment, Ander had to leave the idea. He also had the thought about trying to make some equipment from the hide, but again, without the proper tools he would have to make a lot of compromises. Maybe he could find something in the ruins. Ruin hunting sounded like a great idea in either case.