*You have leveled up!*
Honestly, it was a weird feeling. In an instant, all of my fatigue and tiredness went away like I had just gotten up from a satisfying rest. Checking my stats, all my health and energy and whatnot had recovered as well. Hooray for convenience! I also noticed that my health, energy, and MP bar increased automatically without my intervention. However, looking at the other section, I noticed I have an extra 10 points to spend on the minor stats. I decided to spend the points relatively evenly although I left focus alone since I wasn't a mage... I'm still not too sure on this whole 'magic' business to be honest, but oh well. Stamina, vitality, and endurance sounded like they would be useful in tandem with each other for my own physical durability.
[https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/240x126q90/c/r/923/j1fREE.png]
Although I was classed as a warrior, I saw that my agility nearly equaled my strength which didn’t really sound like a typical warrior, but all in all I didn't really see the problem. Being as weak as I assume I am right now, I think I'm going to need it for now in case I need to run away. As cowardly as that may sound, it's the smart thing to do to stay alive.
After closing my screen, I walked back to the corpse of the wolf and I saw a most peculiar thing. A sort of wispy white orb thing was floating above the corpse. Of course I became cautious, but due to pure curiosity I touched the thing and again, another notification fired up from my interface.
*You've Obtained 'Grey Wolf Soul Essence'*
A soul essence? I'm not even going to pretend like I know what that means. After examining the item, I put it into my 'inventory' which was actually a very helpful thing in my opinion. A sort of convenient hammerspace for my items to vanish into and to pull out of to save space. If only we had these back on earth, it would've solved a whole heap of problems. Maybe when I get to a town I'd ask someone about this whole soul essence business.
The dagger I had acquired was apparently a common variant called 'Hunter's knife'. As the name suggests, it was probably the knife of the poor corpse I saw earlier already mauled by the wolf. Being stuck to a tree like that, the blade was heavily chipped. Well, something's still better than nothing. Putting the dagger on my belt to keep it ready in case of other troubles, I looked to the corpse to see if I could find something else of value. I realised a bit late but I am in need of money if the 0 G in my stat screen wasn't enough of an indication.
Usually in these sorts of circumstances in games, I could probably loot the wolf off of its skin and hide and then sell it but stemming from the fact that this wasn't an actual game per se and that the interface didn't automatically give me a hunting or skinning skill, I couldn't really do that. Unfortunate.
Concluding my business there, I returned to my original path towards the road and luck would have it that along the way near the road I came across a random small pouch of money. It probably fell off a cart or something. This was the providence of the Lord continuing to show itself to me even in an entirely different world. Nevermind the fact that I was technically stealing, but hey, if someone comes along asking for such and such I'd gladly return it... probably. That being said, Besides the pouch of money, I saw some other miscellaneous things on the road leading towards a certain direction, from a child’s doll to a broken barrel with a puddle of water around it.
I instantly shrugged as a peculiar scene must have played out here a few moments ago.
Putting that to the back of my mind, I focused back on my status as a warrior. My current mindset and even my skill set is more akin to a rogue or a thief than a warrior... Maybe I can get a class change, hahaha... Well let's see here. I don't quite know the economy of this world but inside the pouch was a little over a dozen pieces of gold coins and they should be worth something. Putting it in my inventory, the interface immediately recognised it as money and my stats showed as much.
When I finally got to the road, it was a bit more quiet than I expected it to be. Maybe it just wasn't a busy day and considering it was probably around midday and whilst the heat might be negligible, the sun was quite bright. Maybe most of the travelers were taking a rest somewhere. In fact, that might be a good thing as that means a place to stop and rest might just be nearby. Walking along the road was sort of a surreal experience actually as the forest was still quite dense but I can get the feel of some plains being nearby. Looking at the forests, it looked like typical greenery you would see in the old world (Europe).
After a few more good minutes of walking, I stumbled across what I could only call a gruesome scene. About three wolves were munching down on a couple of corpses of what looked to be a small family. From what I could gather, the family were obviously traveling through this road on a small-ish cart pulled by a single horse - the family consisting of a father, mother, and young child - before being viciously attacked by a pack of wolves.
That might explain all the miscellaneous items I saw dropped on the road earlier. The chase must’ve been quite hectic.
This was all quite strange to me as from my experience, wolves - while not docile creatures - rarely threaten the lives of travelers on the main road from where I came from, in fact they weren't really a concern for people outside of farmers and ranchers. Finding them to be so aggressive in this world was truly terrifying.
The scene depicted a tragedy where about three wolves were gorging themselves on the corpse of the father while the torn up corpses of the mother, child, and horse, were laying cold on the ground, probably left to rot as the wolves would make themselves full with the father alone. The man seemed to have put up a bit of a fight as I saw several other wolf corpses surrounding the scene. Quite the warrior if I do say so myself and the remaining wolves had at least some injuries on them. Truly the man was a hero, at the very least to his family.
Now I had a few options. I could just try and sneak past the wolves who were busy gorging themselves and hope to God that they wouldn’t notice, though I found it very unlikely. My other option would be to remain stealthy and eliminate the wolves... by myself... Look, I wasn’t trying to be cocky here but I felt that I might actually have had a chance. They looked to be injured enough and they also didn't look as powerful or as big as the beast I've dealt with earlier.
Well, I wasn’t going know 'til I tried, so I might as well. I uttered a silent prayer and signed the cross before I commenced with my plan. Sneakily and quietly treading along the path near the wolves, close to the trees to make sure they couldn't spot me easily. After getting close enough, I picked up a pebble near me and threw it in a direction further away from where the wolves are. With my strength stat, I managed to throw it far enough that it caught the attention of one of the wolves towards my direction who set out to investigate it, leaving it isolated from the others.
I somehow managed to climb the tree without much difficulty compared to back on earth (it must be the agility stat working its wonders) and I hid myself amongst the leaves and branches. The wolf with its keen sense of smell and hearing managed to discern the tree I was on almost immediately though it still failed to detect me.
As this went on for a bit, a notification popped up.
*You have gained the Sneak skill! Sneak - level 1 added. You are harder to detect and can deal more damage when sneak attacking.*
*You have gained 10XP! ( Intea's Blessing: You have gained an additional 10XP!)*
Talk about another Godsend. At first I was worried that the flashy interface would alert the wolf to my presence but that didn't seem to be the case. Well Intea did say the interface was accessible only to users so I guess that makes sense. I even got a new skill and some exp for essentially doing nothing. Again, the balance in this world is off the whack.
Focusing myself back to the matter at hand, as the wolf was sniffing around and slowly catching my scent, I slowed my breath and calmed myself down. Immediately, I leapt off the tree and quickly lunged at the wolf. A quick death from above if you may. I made it so that there was as little sound as possible so as to not alert the other wolves. As the dagger planted itself deep into the wolf's skull, it didn't give it much leeway to fight back and soon after that it died.
*You have gained 30XP!*
After killing it, I saw that its corpse didn't give me a soul essence. Oh well, maybe only certain beasts had it. I didn't really mind too much, though, as I didn't even know what it was used for. Now I had the other two bastards to deal with and one the wolves looked a bit stronger than the rest. Most probably the alpha of the pack.
Using my previous tactic wouldn't work a second time and the wolves might get suspicious soon so I had to end the encounter quickly. I still had full health and I only used a small bit of my energy so I should be fine. Controlling my breaths again, I made my way to climb a tree nearest to the wolves. Without delaying, I lounged from the tree to strike the weaker wolf which was also the one closest to me. It was clearly caught by surprise and I hit its neck deep, killing it faster than the wolf before.
I hurt myself a bit from the momentum of the fall, but it didn't really matter as...
*You have gained 30XP!*
*You have leveled up!*
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Ahh... Music to my precious ears. I'm back at full strength again, no sweat. Quickly I distributed my skill points in order to help ease my fight against the alpha wolf. I heavily leaned towards my strength and agility and I could already feel myself getting stronger and more agile. My strength was now only a little below the wolf's and I could keep up with it in terms of my speed.
I traded heavy blows with the wolf and kept on stabbing at it. Its thick fur was a bit harder to damage but I still managed to land a couple of good hits on it. It tried to lounge at me but I managed to hold off its paws before it actually bit my arm. It was extremely painful. This was a wake up call that made me truly realise that my life was in real danger and that this wasn't a game.
Holding in my pain from the bite, I strengthened my hold on the wolf and tabbed it harder in its neck. I could feel its strength quickly fading as its hold on me weakened and it eventually died and fell to the ground. That was adrenaline-inducing for sure.
*You have gained 50XP!*
Out of the alpha's corpse, I managed to gain another white soul essence which I put in my inventory. I checked my left arm which was bitten by the wolf and it wasn't really a pretty sight but it wasn't as bad as it seemed either. I lost a quarter of my health there but luckily, I don't think infections are a thing here... I hope... Situations like these would call for healers. Maybe I could form a party soon. But honestly, this pain was real bad.
After examining the abandoned cart, I found a small bag which had a few useful things. One of them was what I could identify as a healing potion. Another stroke of good luck. I immediately opened it and drank it and lo and behold, the process of my healing quickened. Compared to normal humans on earth, the rate at which the awakened healed themselves was considerably faster.
It wouldn’t be out of place to say that us awakened had a ‘healing factor’. On our first day of health class, our teacher Dr. Harvey took a knife and cut his arm in front of the class as his blood flowed but it only took him 10 minutes for the wound to close and for him to be completely healed. Definitely a side effect of our resurrection.
Even in this world, I noticed that the same effect still applied as my wounds and cuts from the battle were beginning . If I hadn't drank the potion, I reckon I would've been back to normal in less than an hour or so... Now I'm beginning to regret drinking and effectively wasting a good health potion.
But there’s no use crying over spilt wine as I was again at full health. My attention now was focused towards the corpses of the dead family. I don't feel right just leaving them here and so I decided to at least try to the best of my abilities to give these poor folk a proper burial.
I rummaged through the wreck of the wagon and managed to find a shovel necks to a small sack of food. I grabbed the shovel and looked for a spot on the side of the road where the ground would be a bit softer. I found a good spot and from there, I started digging. My strength made me able to do the job in under half an hour and I managed to get a hole big enough for the family.
As I dug the hole, a few carts and wagons passed by but they looked like they were in a hurry and couldn't be bothered with what I was doing. They probably saw the scene of the carnage and took it as an indicator to quickly rush off. Judging by the clothing of the people here and the carriages they used, this world looked to be aesthetically and technologically somewhere around the middle ages. Which part of the middle ages, I couldn't really say for sure. I don’t know the conventions of fashion in this world and even if we’re talking about wagons, I’ve heard some rural areas in the modern world still used wagons too albeit in the countries that lacked development.
The people I'm burying may be heathens, worshipers of foreign and unknown Gods, but even they require a proper burial. No matter what, life should be honored. Even those of pagans and heretics... Funny how my time in the modern era changed my mindset in subtle ways. I would like to think that it was for the better, however. But I'm afraid that years of peace in the modern world have weakened my senses to violence and looking at how indifferent the people of this world are to death, I fear that returning to the old darkness of violence would be an inevitable course.
Shaking my head off of those thoughts, I proceeded to carry the mother and placed her next to the man. I noticed on the body of the mother that she was wearing a silver necklace of a crucifix. This definitely piqued my interest as at the very least as it opened a whole can of questions. This world definitely had gods or at least I’m almost sure of it thinking back to Intea, but the existence of this small religious ornament at least confirms that there is a form of religion similar to my own.
With these thoughts in my mind, I was at least assured that these people were most probably some form of christian… though again that is assuming that there was even a monotheistic form of faith in this world.
However, all those pondering thoughts were quickly swept aside as I finally picked up the body of the child... A very young child by the looks of her, not even a few years old yet. From her features, she would've grown into a fine young woman, but the cruel fate of this world had other plans. Since she was but an innocent child, may God rest her soul. I placed her in the middle between her parents, placing their arms around her. They deserved to be together, even in death. I do hope they were good people and maybe the Lord would give them a chance in purgatory... If the Lord even exists in this world... Oh Senor! What am I saying?! God forgive me for my doubts, but as I look at the small child I can not help but feel grave sadness.
On a lighter note, all that burying and digging had an effect and the interface alerted me that my strength and endurance had increased by a single point each. Though it was obviously still of little consolation.
The grim realities of this place are beginning to dawn on me. Without further ado, I placed back the dirt I dug up and after another half an hour managed to bury them. I found a largish stone and placed it above the mound. I took apart two planks of wood from the wagon, tied them together into a familiar shape, and erected a simple cross there while I used my worn dagger to chisel in a small epitaph. Due to the interface, I've gained the knowledge of the common language used in this new world - or at least this new region - which was just plain old English to my ears but here, it was called the common tongue. The words I wrote,
'A brave man and his family, a wife and daughter. Died defending themselves from ravenous wolves. May God have mercy on their souls.'
After that, I looked at the cart wagon in case it had any other useful items I could use. I hope the family would understand me going through their things as if it was a matter of survival. I saw that the clothes I was currently using - which were the clothes I wore during the failed experiment - were sorely out of place whilst in the cart were decent clothes worn by the common folk. My old life was similar to this world - though I was royalty - but in my current situation, I can't really complain. I quietly thanked the dead family and helped myself to anything that may be of use to me. I searched every bag I could and every compartment and managed to find a few useful items.
After changing my clothes in the woods, I examined the items I managed to scrape by. A few more health potions and energy potions, some food rations, a little bit of coin, a bag that I could wear to put items in, and most importantly the sword that the man was using. It looked like a very unique weapon. The mother of the family had a journal and so I decided to take it in case I found something interesting and get more of a feel for this new world.
I think I should be prepared enough for now. The man had some armor but it didn't quite fit me so I decided to store it away for the time being. It was of a common variety, unlike the sword... But this sword was really something now. I could see a bluish glow permeating from it ever so slightly. According to the interface it was a rare item. I don't know how good rare is but it's clear that it is far superior to the common items.
'The Galesword'... cool name if I do say so myself. Associated with the wind element, its extra effects make it lighter than most swords so I could strike with it as fast as I do with other daggers and it has a chance to make strong gusts of wind each time I slash with it. Terrific. It may have something to do with the weapon's base material and maybe even some enchanting on it.
I took a couple of swings with the Galesword to familiarise myself with it. It looked to be a typical one-and-half-handed bastard sword. These kinds of swords were a little bit before my time though, as I was more akin to dueling swords and zweihanders.
Regardless, my time at the academy’s dojo had made me more familiar with a variety of weapons and training with my fellow classmates helped keep me from getting too rusty with a sword.
Swinging this beauty a few times, I had even felt a slight gust of wind being projected from it. Galesword indeed. After about half an hour accustoming myself to the weight and proportions of this great blade, I began to notice the marvelous glints of my swords were beginning to reflect an orange ray of sorts. It was only then did I realise that the evening was approaching and the sun was beginning to set. I quickly resumed my journey to at least find a shelter to rest on. With the dangers I've seen today, I need to be conscious and alert at all times.
When the night fell, I saw a small campsite by the side of the road and decided to head there and see if I could ask for a bit of shelter. But again, my luck has its moments as when I arrived, I only found the corpse of a single hunter being fed on by another pack of wolves, this time about five of them. Honestly this is an absurd situation, and these damned mutts are way too aggressive for my liking.
Well at least I have something to test my new weapon on. Unlike the earlier battles, even though it was against four regular wolves and an alpha, due to my enhanced level and new weapon, I managed to get through the battle without much trouble, although I did lose a third of my health. Though, instead of wasting what few potions I had left, I decided to recuperate over time and let my health regenerate by itself. It always was a marvelous sight to see my skin closing in on itself and healing at an inhuman rate. A bit of a terrifying sight if I might add. Back in the academy, as I had little reason to sustain injuries myself, I never really got to appreciate this blessing.
In even better news, the battle allowed me to experience leveling up again.
*You have gained 30XP!*
*You have gained 30XP!*
*You have gained 30XP!*
*You have gained 30XP!*
*You have gained 50XP!*
*You have leveled up!*
I'll never get tired of that sound. If I'm not unbalanced, I don't know what is... Though, I'm not complaining. This is an absurd world, and for an absurd world, I'd need absurd power. And one of the ways to preserve power is to get enough rest which was what I was going to do.
God had the day been tiring… And to think that I had to sleep in a tent… *sigh*
After I had cleared up the corpses of the hunter to a nearby ditch along with the corpses of the wolves, I lit up the flames of the campsite. Years spent on campaigns had given me at least the very basics and know how to start a campfire.
After the fire was started, I could already feel the cold night air and I quickly huddled close to the fire as I laid myself down on the bedroll in the tent. I took out the wife’s journal which I had taken earlier and began to read it to at least get a handle on what the situation was like here.
Conveniently, it appears that the language used in this particular area was English, though the journal referred to it as Archioric. Without further ado, under the night sky I continued to read until soon enough the fatigue caught up to me and I had fallen asleep.
It was a tiring day, and I think I’d earned the rest...