As I ran, I made sure to maintain the five skills; Sprint, Endurance, Brawn, Scholar, and Sneak. This gave me a comprehensive bonus to my stats, while also letting me pass unnoticed through a crowd. Although I wasn’t at the point yet where I could compare to a player like Diane, I had found a path that would get me there. With my current skills, I was confident in being able to hunt the dire wolf that had threatened myself and Ennolf the day before, though not without injury.

That said, there was still the question of whether the dire wolves still occupied the western forest, given that Diane had even fought a mutated variant. It was possible that the players had already driven them out after only a single day.

I’ll check the forest first. If there aren’t any dire wolves traveling alone, I’ll go further along the road. If possible, I didn’t want to journey that far from Brita until my skills had undergone their first evolution, or I learned a strong enough skill to allow me to compete with higher level players.

With the speed bonus from my Sprint skill, I was able to get to the forest fairly easily. Given how long I had spent in the library, it was already well past noon, and there were a lot of players roaming the forest as if on patrol.

“Hold it!” A voice called out to me, two players walking up. One wore heavy armor, carrying an unreasonably large axe over one shoulder while the other wore a black cloak, a scarf covering the lower half of his face. The one that spoke was the one wearing the cloak, who seemed to have seen through my stealth.

“This is the territory of the Nine Suns Guild.” The axe-wielding player said in an arrogant tone, but I simply raised a brow.

“The Nine Suns Guild?” I asked to confirm, before retorting. “You can’t create a guild without going to the capital.”

Players had only been here for a day, and they were claiming that they had already formed a guild? That seemed… utterly ridiculous.

The axe-wielding player’s brow furrowed, gripping the hilt of his axe firmly. “If we say we’re a guild, we’re a guild!” He declared angrily. “And this forest is our hunting ground. Now, get lost!”

I blinked, staring at the axe in his hands. A weapon like that would have a strength requirement to wield, so he shouldn’t be weak. For a moment, I considered relenting and just moving down the road as I had previously thought about.

However… If I gave in to every player’s demands to avoid trouble, why was I fighting to get stronger in the first place? My eyes scanned the area around us, and I hastily planned my next move.

“Looks like we’re doing things the hard way.” The cloaked man said, reaching beneath his cloak to pull out a pair of curved daggers. There was a faint, liquid sheen on the daggers, meaning that they were probably poisoned.

The bulkier player snorted, lifting his axe high. “Works for me!” He grinned broadly, slamming the axe down with one hand. I shifted to the side, jumping back as the dust picked up. All the while, I kept my gaze on the cloaked figure as he ducked behind a tree, knowing that he was their ‘rogue’.

Comparing him to Diane, he seemed to be an amateur, but I didn’t want to underestimate him. I pulled my bastard sword out and kicked against a tree, sending myself towards the cloaked figure. With how heavy the man’s axe was, it would take a moment before he could deliver another attack.

“Shadow Spike.” The rogue called out, and a thin needle rose up from his shadow to fly at me. I was surprised that he had acquired dark magic, but it was still within the range that I could handle. After all, the spell seemed rather weak.

I lifted my sword, intercepting the needle with a faint clink before reaching the rogue. I sliced down with all of my strength, and he lifted both of his daggers above his head to intercept. My blade got caught in his, but my strength clearly had the advantage. He hadn’t advanced his physical strength at all from what I could tell, so my blade continued downwards to crash into his head.

Immediately, his eyes went vacant, his body limp. “Dammit, Shade!” The axe-wielder shouted, rushing up behind me. His build should be the opposite of his friend, focusing almost entirely on his physical power. For that reason, I didn’t want to fight him head-on.

I quickly reached down, grabbing one of the man’s daggers to hold in my offhand while ducking under the second swing of the axe, a horizontal slash that sliced into a nearby tree. While he was working to get his axe out, I rolled forward, passing by his legs and cutting his waist with the dagger.

“You bastard! You stole his weapon?!” The man grunted, though he didn’t seem to be in much pain. I was confused about the effect of the poison until I saw him pull his axe out of the tree, stumbling a few steps to the right. So, it’s a numbing agent?

I took a deep breath, throwing the dagger straight at the warrior. We were making too much noise, so other monsters or players could be drawn over soon.

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The warrior flinched, bringing his arm up to shield his face from the thrown weapon. Taking advantage of that, I rushed in, stabbing his throat with my sword. Most players don’t have experience in real fights. This was something everyone knew, but there were always exceptions.

The fighter collapsed, his body crashing into the ground with a disbelieving gaze. I walked over and wiped my sword off on the rogue’s cloak before sheathing it. Then, I placed my hand on the rogue’s body. “Collect.” I said softly, the rogue’s body shimmering briefly before vanishing. When it vanished, the dagger that I had previously thrown also disappeared, as it was still bound to the player.

Instead, what was left in place of the body was a vial of translucent liquid. It didn’t look like any potion I was familiar with, and I wasn’t about to test an unidentified potion. When I looted the warrior, my eyes widened in surprise, a bright smile finding its way to my face.

What had dropped from this warrior was none other than his armor. Moreover, even without the Appraisal skill, I could tell that this was true, properly-made armor. Either they had a blacksmith friend, or they had paid a premium to purchase proper armor made by a Fallen smith.

Either way, I happily placed both items in my inventory, selecting the armor to equip it. Immediately, a set of dark armor appeared over my body. It was heavy, but that was fine. I could adapt to its weight over time, and it may even help me train my skills.

Standing up, I noticed that two messages were waiting for me after the battle. The first was about the acquisition of a skill called Perception, useful for spotting hidden threats. The second was a notification that my Stamina had increased. My eyes widened briefly, realizing that my stamina had climbed all the way to six stars, so long as I also kept my Endurance skill active.

I shook my head quickly, checking around to see if any coins had dropped. I was pleased to find a total of thirty-two copper coins scattered on the ground, quickly picking them up before fleeing the scene. It wouldn’t take long before the players informed their friends about me, especially since I had looted his armor.

As I ran, I noticed that I made significantly more noise now that I was wearing that very armor, compared to when I was just in regular clothes. This was… not conducive to training my Sneak skill, so I slowed down, focusing on adjusting my movements to make as little noise as possible.

Thankfully, the armor wasn’t too cumbersome, so there was still some room to experiment. It’s not like I had to drag my feet to walk or anything. Once I had adjusted my walking to minimize noise, I saw that the experience of my Sneak skill had started to climb faster.

In the distance, I could hear the clamor of players shouting that ‘He couldn’t have gotten far’ or ‘Keep searching’. It was hard to tell whether they had anyone with the Perception skill or not, but I wasn’t going to take the risk. There was no way that I could fight a large group of players at once, even if I had better equipment now. If they were serious about getting it back, they would kill me, and then keep killing me any time I left the city until it dropped.

Naturally, that situation was unacceptable. I had to either find a way to ensure that they were wiped out here, or drop off of their radar. Neither option was easy, but I had an idea. Thank you, Karlson…

When Karlson was picking out books for me to read earlier, he had focused on those with information about Brita and its surroundings. This included the local monsters that one needed to be wary of. I focused on that book, trying to recall its contents, before a window appeared in front of me, text scrolling until I found what I was looking for.

The Dire Wolf Alpha was a powerful monster that ruled the forest, a boss. It had the talent, Pack Leader, which allowed it to empower other creatures of the same species in battle. According to the book, its estimated threat level when solo was around twenty, but if it was fought with other dire wolves, the threat level was twenty-five, or thirty if it included mutated species.

In order to help people avoid stumbling into its territory, the book gave tips on how to identify where it lived. Clawed markings on the trees, and special fruits that grew locally that the alpha enjoyed eating.

I looked around, spotting a marked tree in the distance, and began to make my way over. Along the way, I broke numerous branches and made sure to leave deep tracks for the others to follow.

However, I had no intention of challenging the boss myself. Instead, I stopped at the marked tree, carefully clearing my trail while moving over to hide in a thick bush. Normally, anyone would still be able to see me through the leaves if they looked closely, but I still had Sneak active, so I was hoping that I would be fine.

Sure enough, it was only five or six minutes before a group followed my trail. Among them was the warrior from before, now sporting common cotton clothes while wielding his axe with a furious expression. The rogue that I had killed seemed annoyed as he followed my tracks to the tree. “He came this way.” He told the others, a group of more than ten players behind him.

They were all pumped, ready to fight to the death to reclaim both their items and their dignity. However, I didn’t make a sound, my eyes watching them intently while grabbing the handle of my bastard sword. If the rogue found me, I would still need to fight my way out.

Thankfully, he was focused on the tracks, only briefly glancing at the claw marks on the tree. “Looks like we might have to face a bear, so keep on guard.” He warned, before guiding the group deeper into the forest.

I waited until they were all out of sight, before a smile crept over my lips, slowly moving out of the bush to leave the area. As for following them to try and kill the boss after they fought it? I had no confidence that they would be able to inflict substantial damage to the boss. Even escaping would be difficult for them. The only reason that I did all of this was to force the death penalty on the full group.

When a player died, regardless of whether their body was looted or not, they would respawn missing whatever was ‘planned’ to drop when their body was collected. For instance, the warrior respawned without his armor before I ever claimed it. If I could force their entire group to lose something valuable, that would be best.

Players are most known for their recklessness… if they think there’s a chance, they might challenge the boss again after their failure, hoping to reclaim their items. Bodies won’t disappear until they are looted, so it is their only chance to get back what they lost. If that leads to them dying again… even better.