"How about I give you a chance. The opportunity to back off and leave exceptionally unharmed."

They laughed about his generous offer. It was worth a try. But some people had to learn the hard way.

The man in the middle, probably their leader, started to talk. "It's best if yo just leave your belongings here. Really, no daddy's gonna..." Ker really had not time for this. After all he had to come home in time for dinner. His mother was pretty strict about dinner time. He simply charged forward, appeared before the baffled thief-leader and punched him straight in the face. The thief-leader landed stunned on his four letters.

Skill straight punch lvl 1 learned

That was definitely surprising. However he rather hurried in this situation and bodied one of the thieves to the left against a building. Since he didn't hold back that thief hit the wall hard and was out cold. The right man had just enough time to draw a knife and throw it at Ker. He steeled his body by tensing his muscles. The knife struck true and clanged to the ground.

Skill Stone Defense lvl 1 learned

Unharmed Ker charged his next victim. That in turn was baffled that the knife was simply shrugged off. Before Ker could reach the Knife thrower, someone had thrown themselves on his back.

"I hold him back, run" At this very cliche expression, Ker rammed his right elbow in the gut of his sudden attachment. The thief let him go and cowered pain struck on the ground. Free of his weight, Ker reached the last standing thief and used his newly gained skill straight punch. The thief hit the ground unconscious.

He noticed a movement behind him. The thief-leader had pulled himself together and had grabbed the knife from the ground. Surprised at that Ker saw how the leader was now charging at him. Ker used his second leaned skill stone defense and took the hit on his left forearm in a defensive position. The Knife bounced off again and he used the opportunity to punch the thief-leader in the face and kick him back. He deliberately hold back. He didn’t want to accidentally end someones life after all. He just defended himself and wanted to teach a lesson to a gang of thieves.

Now that the fight was over, Ker could see that some of the were just boys around his age or older and at least one was a young man. "Let this be a lesson to you." He let it be at the warning, he already won and hopefully they would learn.

It was interesting to him that he couldn't learn any techniques in the usual way but had to learn through battle. That made it far more important to return to the wilderness and hunting beasts. Luckily their stay in Mundor Leandris was at its end. He would soon return to Wellsheid and start to adventure again. This time he might even bring his friends along to help them out.

⚝──⚜─⚜─⚜──𖤍

All the way on their way back home Ker was sunken deep in thought. He learned a lot in training with his new self-proclaimed trainers. Jiero and Amelia were very proficient in their chosen field and equally good in transmitting it. Additionally he improved his fighting style by training alone. But the real gains were the two earned skills. If he just had known that earlier. Now he could start to earn more skills and the means were simple, just fight a bunch of monsters with his desired skill. Intention also seemed to matter.

"Hey son do tell, what are you brooding about?" His parents exchanged glances with each other.

"Well, I thought about which monsters would be best to fight next. What quests should I take to help me best and how I can help my friends to advance"

"That sound very amicable. But don't trouble yourself over it. And considering your friends, they probably just need a good hunting ground. I am certain we can find something." His father had a very lax attitude to his concerns. His mother just rolled her eyes at his words. "As we would have been better in our days. At least our son thinks for himself instead of rushing into danger."

As his parents started to banter he rather returned to his own plans and blended them out. His first idea was to focus in his 1. earned skill. Maybe he could level it up. At it was now it sat at level 1. It surely would proof to be even more useful the higher the level. His next step would be to try to learn new skills using weapons like a spear or a sword. Additional he could try to learn other martial arts skills, like a kick or different moves. He definitely would have to experiment a lot.

As soon as he arrived home, he changed into provisional armor, mostly made out of leather with a bit of chain-mail to protect flexible areas. He walked straight to the guild to choose his next assignment. His parents of course demanded that he would also take a substitute sword with him. They would not let him venture out without a means to attack and afflict substantial damage. Additional he also picked a spear for experimental purposes. Even when he knew he most-likely wouldn't need any weapons, his parents didn't know this. He also felt a little better prepared for whatever he might encounter.

Inside the guild hall Ker got to see the newly renovated building. It looked very similar to the old, just with a tidbit more extravagance to it. Less interested in the interior design of the guild hall, he moved directly to the counter and asked for any fitting new quests. After stating his identity the receptionist showed him three odd quests for his estimated level. Just that Ker definitely wasn't anymore level three. The odd quests were also way too typical like clearing a building or helping newbie adventurers in their first quest/monster kill. There was an easy way out, level-identification. It was also most feared by Ker since he didn't had the faintest clue what the results would show.

Then again taking odd quests without the option to advance was out of question. So he accepted the risks to his person. "I don't think those tasks are anymore my level. I would like to ask for a revaluation of my level." Quickly he added "I would also like that everything other that my level stays confidential. As viscount I would like to protect my privacy." That was his only way out, it was knew to him to rely on his title as nobleman and he started to find it ostentatious if not arrogant.

But it did help in his case and the receptionist eagerly prepared the device in a separate room. Once fully operational, the receptionist collected the fee of 12.5 shilling and left Ker with very simple instructions. Inside the private booth, Ker placed both his hands on the black round sphere of the device. Just a moment later his level (18) as well his active as well as passive skills were displaced. Not a big problem after all, until Ker noticed that his class was missing. There was just a question mark. This machine could impossible find no class where non were. Retreating from the device only his level remained mirrored in the sphere.

Ker called for the receptionist who wrote down his new level and nodded in understanding. "I will find new more fitting quests for you, my Lord. If you wish you can stay in this private booth and look them over fully undisturbed."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"That would be to my liking" Ker agreed to the arrangement.

The new Quests were definitely more complex needing more capability in the fitting area. The range was from culling small beasts near the woods to protecting trade goods either inside or outside the city. Without question he chose the culling quest. After all there was nothing better than to kill some random beast while training his skills. It was also the best chance for him to experiment to learn new skills. Speaking of appropriate level, the quests were all too low-level for him but low key enough so that if he wanted to gather EP he could do so alone.

Of course he had to actually avoid people, aka other adventurers, to conduct his business on his own terms. But he was certain that he should be able to pull that of easily. No was interested in some random beginner adventurer in one of their first quests.

More annoying was that he had to give a pledge if he accepted the quest. That was done so that every quest taker would also follow through with their respective quest and do it in time. It was just minor currency for him, but annoying nonetheless.

As he arrived at the Bridlewoods, the area his quests was located in, he noticed how serious it actually was. The quest just stated to cull rabbit beasts, it did in fact not put in the real numbers. That to say there were hundreds if not thousands of rabbit beasts nearby the fields. They threatened to eat most of the crop and with that endanger the upcoming harvest. As Ker had already seen when he arrived at the village a few weeks ago, harvest had already started. And for the collected farmers for these fields it looked grim. They probably would even hunger because of the rabbit beast plague. There was only one thing to do.

Time to cull the overpopulation.

Ker got to work. He charged in with his blade and struck true at the first unassuming rabbit beast. It was instantly slain.

Stripe rabbit beast lvl 3 (I) slain

Of course he would get no levels from such a weak beast. But if he continued on killing them, he might just get there. As it turned out it was harder than it seemed at first. Ker was confronted with the usual problem of hunters, a large group of prey that spread itself out as soon as he approached. Without the necessary focus he would never get there on time. He opted for focused attacks at single rabbits, which worked but also needed time. He was at it for hours now and killed just over a hundred rabbit beasts. That was far too slow for his take. It was also annoying that some of them tried to fight back, with considerable low results. He was at his first evolution level 18.

Which gave him an idea, he was here to learn new skills so he should exactly do that. He tried several times to learn sword skills with as much intent as he could muster, but non were received. Then he put his sword away and positioned himself with his fists in a ready stance. Some of the beasts perked up but none approached him. So Ker lowered his stance until he practically sat on the grass. He also,lowered his defense to look weak. It somewhat worked one of the beasts slowly hobbled towards him sniffing the air. As it was close enough he struck out with his skill. Straight punch barely connected and send the rabbit flying. It crashed against a tree and played dead on the ground. Ker still saw its small breast rise and fall, it definitely wasn't dead. So Ker changed that quickly, punching it in the ground as it tried to attack him. As result the ground as well as his boots were now covered in blood.

Cross-Stripe rabbit lvl 2 (II) slain

Straight punch lvl 1 -> 2

That at least worked, but it was still just bad in crowd control. He had to learn a better skill. He tried to fish the rabbits while charging through the mass of beasts. He often missed and only sometimes scratched some of them. Until he successfully charged by a rabbit far enough that it just hobbled to the side but also close enough that he could grab it with his left hand swinging outward. The rabbit flew in consequence to the side and slapped on the ground.

Fishing by lvl 1 learned

Now he could ran through the mass and throw rabbit left and right... just that it was another useless skill for his situation. That would just spread them out further, what he needed was the opposite. He needed to herd the herd or outright kill a bunch of them in one strike. That was when he heard a desperate squealing. Something was fighting for its life. And Ker was glad for the distraction.

He observed as a wild boar young was cornered by a rabbit with zigzagged horns. It re-positioned itself to prevent the boar young to flee. The boar young was already wounded and seemed out of options. Ker didn't want to interfere in natures struggle, just observed. The horned rabbit charged and ripped open a sight of the boar. It was close to its end, the boar was bleeding out. But the rabbit didn't kill the boar, it hobbled to wards it and started slowly eating its flesh.

That was unnecessary cruel, neither animals nor beasts acted that way. In nature it was all about survival and strive. Intentional cruelty had no place in it. Unwilling to let this continue, Ker charged forward, the rabbit just noticing him aimed to jump a way, but Ker used his skill Fishing by and threw the rabbit against a random tree. The rabbit slapped roughly against the tree, but seemed unharmed. It positioned itself towards Ker. He in turn readied himself. With a better view, he could now see the black eyes of the rabbit. There was something profoundly wrong with it. He felt it resonate in him and he didn't like it one bit. The rabbit in turn charged at him, but counter feigned his punch by making a sharp turn and charging from the side. The impact hurt but didn't wound him. In contrast it enabled him to hit the rabbit with a downward swing. That squashed the rabbit directly on the ground and definitely wound it. But it was unperturbed by his attacks and jumped between him and the boar. It obviously wanted to prevent him to get between it and its prey.

Then it crunched one of the boars bones. Ker couldn't believe it, but was it salivating. He also decided to end this, he control nearly slipping away. He charged full speed ahead grabbed the rabbit with the skill Fishing by, but let it go before finishing the throw. He turned his body to the side were the horned rabbit was in the air and punched it with straight punch.

Straight punch lvl 2 -> 3

The rabbit crashed on the ground, visibly hindered on getting up. Ker rather gave it no time and followed his attack with a kick. The rabbit could not avoid that attack either and was kicked right in the next tree. As it bounced off, Ker already on its heckles punched it again against another tree. It was heavily injured on the ground, seemingly shooting a glare at Ker. Ker felt some hideous power gathering in its small maw. It turned its head and fired a mass of concentrated malevolence at the boar. Ker's control slipped and an overwhelming sense of justice took over. He stepped before the attack and dispelled it with his bare hand. With white glowing eyes he confronted the horned rabbit and delivered his justice with unyielding blows.

Demonic Hornrabbit (envy) lvl 3 (II) slain 1 lvl gained Straight punch lvl 3 -> 4

Only as his phase ended he regained control over his doings and stopped punching the rests of the beast into the ground. He remembered the boar young and walked towards it. It was still living and still in pain. Should he end this poor things suffering or ...