The trap did lie in the clearing, Ker hid himself near the large tree. The ambush was prepared. Ker was ready.
He had to drive some small predators away. The bait seemed already to work. It would have to show itself if it also worked for beasts.
So Ker waited and waited.
He became thirsty and slightly hungry, but prevailed. Until finally the moment of truth showed itself. A wolf with brownish pelt and long dark patches carefully neared its prey. Unfortunately that prey was the bait of another hunter, placed on a tested trap.
In a leap the wolf catched two voles, the sticks gave way and the wolf plunged into the hole. A bloodcurdling scream filled the area. Ker was quick on his feet, tacking as many spears as he could and rushed to the trap. He knew, that a kill with a trap would only give a trapper good levels. Everyone else would profit much worse or get trapper as a class option. Ker did not want to become a trapper. He rather relied on himself than on tools.
Now came the final test, how many spears would one beast need to die. Ker lunged spears in the pit with no end. Actually until he was left with two spears. It turned out this beast wasn't weak, it was also extremely resilient. Bleeding severely all over its body, probably a broken paw and many times staked. No this did not look like a quick way to gain level. Still, Ker had learned a lot, like not to waste ammunition and that he needed more strenght.
He invested 6 remaining points into strength.
Strength: 16 -> 23
With the last two spears he tried to hit vital areas. He did not hit. He missed with one spear. Ker sighed, moved to his pile of stones and relocated them near the pit. He gathered some more stones to go certain. Then he threw the stones with full force at the beast. The wolf suffered loudly andcKer just wanted to end this. He didn't opt for maximized suffering. In future he had to change his ways of hunting drastically.
The wolf slumped to the ground and its last breath left its maw.
Denwolf (II) lvl 1 slayn 1 level gained
Ker thought that it weird meeting the wolf alone. It was also a Denwolf, so probably a wolf from a den.
Did that mean it was young?
Ker neither knew nor cared to much. What he cared for most was to get the wolf out if the pit. This was his personal EP bank after all.
A deep growl permitted the woods. Opposite the pit a glowing oair if eyes appeared. Then another and another pair of eyes could be seen. Ker lookes dumbfounded. A pack of wolf were approaching him.
Never mind my question.
Obviously the wolf was not alone and from the size of the other wolfs it was also a youngling.
Ker really did not want end up as wolfsnack today, so he turned tail and ran. He put all his effort into reaching his safe haven, his tree. Just behind him the wolfes, way too near to climb the tree. Ker had to take a corner around his tree and sprint on. His survival was dependent on his speed, without hesitation he put all his stat points into Dexterity. He instantly dismissed the status window to focuse completely on running away.
Dexterity 16 -> 22
Ker could already feel the improved speed. He could have chosen strength, since it translated to a stronger body and that meant stronger legs, therefore more force to propell him forward. The thing was stats did not focuse and gave no understanding. To gain those people needed to train and gather experience in a specific field. The strength would be equally distributed through Ker's body. To strengthen one part particularly and gain prowess he would have to train for month and years. This was not an option. He needed speed and flexibility right now.
With over a third more points in Dexterity, Ker's speed improved significantly. He gained distance from the wolf pack. Only to be reminded shortly later, that high level wolfs are high level for a reason. The pack caught up, growling and foaming at their mouths, two pounces behind him.
Ker could practically feel the low, angry growl behind his right side.
Time to change tactics.
He started to zigzag like a rabbit, always short behind trees, to outmaneuver the wolfs and hide his path of flight. He gained valuable distance this way. Just that he was neither fast nor nible enough. He had to adjust his approach again, this time more literal. He choose to accelerate towards one tree, crash into it and use the momentum to bounce towards the next tree. This approach had to positives: his next direction was more random, he was slightly faster and he finnaly could avoid the foaming mouthed of the pack. It also had a great negative: he crashed into every tree along the way, adding damage and pain to him. The damage was near negligible, but the pain wasn't. Both sides hurt like crazy, as of someone pushed him continuously against walls. The pain added to the exhaustion and depleted his reserves rather quickly. He needed a way out.
And he found a way in.
Before him opened a space with several large trees. All those trees showed similarity to the tree he had declared his own. One major point were the inhabitant: giant squirrels that bustled and hustled around.
He had no time to stopp, not time to plan, no time to think. So he just ran right through all this and caused pure chaos. Close behind him the pack of wolfs, suddenly with a change of reality confronted. The squirrels confused and threatend pounced after Ker and defended their home against the pack. That left the wolfs occupied and Ker could actually flee. The squirrels were obviously no hunters and left him after a short distance alone.
Ker was completely out of breath. His stamina must have been depleted. He tried to force himself to stand, but failed and dropped to the ground. He seriously hoped the wolfes would not hunt him any further, that would be the end of him.
After a short rest he started to track his way back, very carefully. To avoid the squirrel den as the wolf pack. He made a huge curve around the squirrel den. And managed to avoid the wolfes.
He questioned if it was even a good idea to return to his new place. He might be better of finding something new. Than again, that might make his situation even worse.
He thought about returning to the facilty and shook his head quickly. That place was cursed, damned not to be treated at all.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
He returned much later, after a few stops and two catched voles later. At least he wouldn't suffer much hunger. But he doubted the voles would suffice. On to new hunting grounds... he would say, but he clearly needed to first learn to survive reliably in this one.
He neared his tree and the successful trap. The wolf corpse was still there. Letting it rot there would not help him, better get to work, no matter how dastartly it was.
On the end he fished the corpse out of the hole via spear. Ker started to muse, that spears may be the way-to-go tools.
He really wanted this to be different, this way of acquiring EP was not very human. He rather eat something cooked, with oil and spices lifted to culinary heights. This way he just hoped it would still be edible.
Good appetite
Ker really could not find the appeal on raw meat. But when his mouth closed around the flesh of the young wolf, a craving for flesh took root. As the blood touched his tounge, he felt a thirst for blood that overshadowed any lingering thoughts. In his desire for sustenance he devoured the flesh, the muscles and partly the organs of the young wolf.
+ 10 EP New passive Bloodthirst acquired
He regained his senses after the debauchery. He was disgusted at himself. Would he ever get used to this, this new barbaric life.
Ker was tired and full, his body showing clesr signs of tiredness. He cleaned himself like the day before, climbed the tree and lay in the uncomfortable hole.
His sleep was not soft. He dreamed of something bad, he felt hunted, he had to run. There weren't any pictures, but raw feelings in his dream.
As Ker awoke, he felt refreshed, ready fo another day. Then again he didn't want to repeat the occurrence from yesterday.
Now he had 10 EP and no use for it. Not jet. He needed to find out how to use Evolution. Ker could not fathom the use of such a system.
Maybe he really needed to go back to that godforsaken place. But maybe it would resolve itself with more EP and levels. After all what did he knew.
So it was back to planning and trapping. He just wanted to avoid attracting another pack of wolves. Then he remembered the squirrel den, that would be either a very good or a very bad idea. He had to go certain to attract the beasts seperate. A bold plan formulated in his head.
He would provoke one squirrel from distance, bait it into a trap, then look if the trap could hold or injure said squirrel. If the beast could be harmed by the trap, he would confront it with a spear. Maybe he should craft something else, like a staff or give the spear an edge. He was surely no crafter, but what choice did you have in the wilds.
His spears before were more large sticks with a pointy end. This time he wanted a real weapon. So he looked out for a fitting branch. Of course Ker couldn't find any. Since that seemed unlikely to just find a somewhat straight branch of his size, he changed his approach.
He took two stone and refined one of them with the other stone into a cutting tool. That worked miserably, but it worked. Then Ker looked out for a fiitinh branch on a tree. That was a much easier way to go aboit things. He found several potential candidates, chose one random and started cutting it off. He also learned why a handle is a really good idea, because he cut himself several times in that task. Then he cut the bark of the branch and straightened it as much as possible. One end of the spear was divided into four slits.
He eyed the drying pelt parts on one of the trees. He would have forgotten about them. Again he had to start a fire. The fire served the task to dry and harden the spear. Ker was very careful not to spark a fire on the spear.
It was time to add the tip of the spear. Again he used a stone to refine the made stone blade. It was ardous and the result not nearly like he imagined. But the tip fit on top of the spear.
Now he used stripes from the pelt to fixate the tip and complete the spear.
Title gained: Toolmaker
That was new. For some reason all the tools before didn't count, but this one fulfilled the requirements to be called a tool. Also he got a title, just for making one tool. That's not how titles were normally given, as far as he knew.
The second task of this day was something he happily awaited, pants.
He took the dried pelt and cut it into some form. He then bound this around his waist. Done were his very simple and just barbaric pants. But he wasn't stark naked anymore.
Time to hunt.
Ker gathered sticks and stones and his shovel-stone. With that he embarked on his hunt for EP.
But his enemies were numberless, dastartly, horrifying beasts, hidden in form of giant, cute looking squirrels.
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As one of the cross-striped squirrels just climbed the outmost tree, a stone was hurled towards it. The arc precisely aimed, the stone destined to hit the head of the beast.
It was angry.
It's head looked quickly around for the perpetrator. It found Ker in between the undergrowth. Ker in turn thought better of it and retreated. The squirrel gave chase. So far a success.
Half way to the trap the squirrel seemed annoyed not to get close to the attacker and tried to return to its den. Ker could not allow that to happen.
He hauled another stone against the beast. The squirrel just kicked the low thrown stone away. Ker had to resort to more drastic measures. He run to the squirrel and cut it with his spear across its back.
That provoked a clear reaction, just as Ker hoped. The beast clawed after him and he had to retreat again. This time he really had to run. The squirrel would not let him off this time.
Short before the trap, he hurried around it and awaited the squirrel. The beast triggered the trap focused only on Ker. One of its feet paws did fall into a small hole. There it was piked by a stick. That repeated with the secand paw and even with one of the frind paws. The squirrel was in pain and half stuck in small pit traps. Ker acted fast, he struck the beast repeated with the front and back of his spear. The wounds added, the bleeding increased, the squirrel became sluggish from blood loss. The final strike ended its struggle and granted Ker his well prepared victory.
You slayn a Squirrel lvl 3 (I).
Now again came the more barbaric act of consuming the prey for EP.
Ker was going certain that no other predator was nearby. Then he dug in.
It still felt weird afterwards. But now at least he lost himself in the act of consuming his slayn prey.
+ 3 EP gained
Still no sign of any usage. Maybe he simply didn't reach the threshold.
Ker prepared for another hunt. This time hevopted for mass instead of a singular being. He would have to make a big trap with enough stakes and enough ammunition. Also a way to retreat once things got out of hand would be nice. It might actually save his life.
This time it would definitely take more time and effort than with the wolf. Maybe he could continously trap prey this way. Than again he rather hunted his prey directly.
He sighed in face of his opportunities. Hunting squirrels right now might result in less EP and levels, but it would be faster and more direct.
Ker actually saw no other way right now. He would trap the area around his tree and hubt squirrels for short time gain. He also didn't have the tools and knowledge to create such a contraption.
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After hunting three more squirrels he was very happy with the result:
1lvl gained
1lvl gained
2 lvls gained
+ 12 EP
Ker distributed his points where they were needed most.
Str: 32 Dex: 30 Con: 34 Int: 15 Wis: 15
He still had no idea about EP and the miraculous evolution, but he was definitely stronger than before. He was much stronger than as he entered the woods. He really felt he accomplished something great.
With that feeling he returned home. Looked up the tree and was hit by dread. He would have to sleep in a little hole high up in a tree. That hit home hard. He really had a long way from where he was now. With that level-headed attitude he climbed the tree and peacefully fallen asleep.