One night I woke up suddenly. Something had triggered me to wake up. Miss Alert isn't being noisy, but in the distance I can hear the sound of a wounded animal. I rush out and track it to its source. Just south of my home I find a doe of a deer like animal. It has fallen into my pit. The pit I had almost forgotten about. I never did prepare a bait for the pit, so the doe stumbled into it by accident. It has been partially impaled on two of the spears in the pit. I climb down and put it out of its misery. After storing the body I reset the pit trap.

While working a hear a rustle in the bushes near me. It is a small baby deer. It probably smells its mother's smell on me. It looks straight at me. Ah so cute! I grab it and take a close look. A bit small and scrawny. Won't make much of a meal. It tries to get loose, but it is helpless in my hands. I tie a rope around its legs and hoist it up over the pit using a tree branch just above. It is just out of reach for most animals. Little Bambie is noisily making its complaints heard. Sorry, I need to eat meat to grow stronger, and you are bait.

Before I fall asleep, Miss Alert goes off notifying me that another animal has fallen in my pit. Rushing out the alert is still ringing. There is still danger about. As I approach the pit I see wolves circling the pit. They definitely look like wolves, not the lone doglike creatures I have seen before. Mr Analyze confirms it. I surprise them with a rain of arrows. Only a couple escape in time. I took out three wolves with arrows and a fourth one is in the pit. Looks like I will be able to make some wolf skin clothes soon.

After resetting the trap and giving a bit of water to Bambie I go back to sleep. The next morning I check that my bait is still alive and start dismantling the wolves. I do the same thing the next day, but the following night I wake up to a much greater alert going off. A big horned beast bear has fallen into the pit. I have seen a couple of these since the first one while out hunting, but always kept my distance consider how hard they are to kill with flint weapons. The bear is clearly still alive despite being partially impaled on all the spears at the bottom of the pit.

I pour a shower of big rocks on top of the bear until the pit has been completely filled up. I feel the surge of level increase and I know it is dead. Resisting the urge to check my new stats I recover the dead bear and reset the trap. I am starting to feel a bit sorry for Bambi now. He done me good, and I can't really handle more dismantling work at the moment, so I take him down and release him inside my garden. If need be I might use Bambi Bait again, but if he grows up he can still be Mr Reserve Food.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Back at home I check my menu. I am now level 7. I went up two levels from killing the bear. Still not three like last time, and with all the hunting I have being doing since my last level up, including the four wolves I should have been close to level 6. I guess leveling up becomes harder they higher I go. Very much like a game, but I guess it make sense in a real world setting as well. It creates balance. With the level increases comes a substantial increase in my physical stats as well. Looks like my physical conditioning level 10 is still doing me well.

With my physical stamina and strength far above a normal person, I focus on improving my archery and hunting skills. I also work on improving my spearmanship, as I want to be able to deliver a killing blow to any animal arrows won't take down. I keep working on making tools and new bows. Everything seems a lot easier these days. Looking at my menu I notice that my generic sounding crafting skill has reached level 7. It seem to make me good with my hands, but since it is such a generic skill it must stack with my other crafting skills like bowmaking, fletching, tool making, stone carver and wood worker. Lets see if I can move it up to the magical level 8.

On one of my hunting trips to the east I spotted a mountain range in the distance. Confident I can survive the night away from home I spend the rest of the day running towards the mountains. I seem to be able to run non-stop for hours. I am officially an ultra runner. I might be able to beat a horse long distance as well. I reach the mountains later afternoon. While it is still light I start searching for trails or paths. The mountainside provides precarious foothold. Gravel on top of hard surfaces and loose rocks makes for a dangerous climb. I am finally appreciating my homemade leather shoes. They are a tight fit, providing me with grip as good as if I were bare feet, but also protect me from sharp surfaces.

Alert goes off. Looking around I see no movement from animals, map shows nothing as well, but then I hear a loud rattling noise coming closer. Avalanche! I look for cover, but can only see a small overhang, just about large enough to protect my head and shoulders. I dig my hands into whatever grip I can get behind the small cover. All I can do is pray and hope for the best. My head seem to be safe, but my body is being bombarded with rock. Now I know what the victims of my rock barrage felt like before they died. I feel a sharp pain in my leg as a much larger rock hits me.