A large clearing in the middle of the forest met Jack's eyes as he finally returned to the camp. A large boar that he had killed was on his shoulder, it was easy enough to carry with increased stats. The old man Brian was beside him, carrying a bundle of spears and a few leather pieces that were secured from goblins, while too small to use they could be repurposed.
They were noticed quickly, almost ten thousand people in one place meant the entire circular grassland was taken over as people split into smaller groups, leaving no chance for Jack and Brian to pass by unseen.
It wasn't the two men that people focused on, but the meaty and juice boar full of good meat on Jack's hands. Some came closer as they passed. "Please! My children are starving!" Everyone was ignored, but it always brought sadness to Jack, people were starving and that was a fact. Being ripped away from their world and brought into the middle of the forest with only a spear to defend themselves did that, humanity was not prepared for it.
As they neared the middle of the camp finally some structures could be found, a simple log palisade with few places inside roofed made of branches with leaves to protect from sun and weather. It was a collection point for hunter game, storage, kitchen and food disposition center. Full camp of thousands of people who ate nothing or mere scraps for a few days, made it the most protected place in the camp, to prevent stealing or even group raids. It somewhat worked.
Jack put down the boar, but refused his share of meat. Not because he was sympathetic to the camp people or wanted to save more for the children, the day simply was young yet and he didn't want to waste time waiting for meat to be roasted over the fire. He had places to be in, battles to fight, blood to claim, and Jack wasted enough time bringing the boar back. It would make more sense to just leave it there, but he was supposed to be a team player.
"I'm off." He spoke to Brian, the old man nodded but spoke nothing, he himself was busy, as a leader of the camp he had people to organize into hunting parties. Jack once again entered the forest that surrounded the camp in all directions.
-
As he took another step he froze, Jack could have sworn he heard a twig snap near him, somewhere to his left behind all the bushes and trees. It was half an hour since he entered the forest already and he was getting bored from all the walking,
His grip on the glaive became surer, the long polearm ended with a cutting blade and a sharp point ready to be used at moments notice. He waited for the inevitable, but after a minute passed he got too impatient, too bored.
With one swift jump he got to one of the thick branches two and a half meters above the ground, the place he just left was struck by three stones. With a high advantage he could see his enemies, they were humans.
“Who are you?” Jack asked, there was a sliver of chance they didn’t mean to do it, even before the system there were times that hunters mistook humans for a game. He could see seven men, all in the same gear they started with. Leather armor with cloth under it and two meter long spears, they were taller than him though, with longer hands. It wasn’t something new, as he stood only 5 feet and 7 inches in heigh, or 170 centimeters if one used an actual measuring unit. Jack cracked a bit at his own unspoken joke, unnerving his adversaries a bit. They knew him, meaning it was personal.
One man took a step forward, Jack could remember this one, he was one of the few that didn't die in the wolf attack he and his hunting group were a target of. “My brother died because of you.” He couldn’t remember causing someone’s death, well, except the murderer. “You failed to protect him.” Oh, not a well placed anger then. It was a jungle law inside this forest, or rather forest law… The weak ones died, those that panicked and turned their back to the enemies more often than the ones who stood their ground, unless one faced a boar. There were multiple times Jack went out to hunt in the forest, almost always they returned missing someone, such was life. People made mistakes, in this case the cost of it was their own death.
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“We are sorry for him, the stone was an accident.” Jack doubted it, but he wouldn’t kill someone just because he wanted to hit him with a stone out of spite. It wasn't a good sport. “Let’s be on our way.” The older of them spoke, it seemed that age indeed gave people some more wisdom, as the raging man was clearly young, in fact he should be called a kid. Jack nodded and watched as the group walked away, everyone was tense for some reason, as if they met a beast of some kind. Jack wondered if he should look for it as he jumped back down to the ground from the branch he was standing on, but as he was about to start searching something stopped him, a thought. They were afraid of him.
-
After twenty more minutes of wandering the forest he finally found something, a pack of wolves. They were prowling around him, dozens of meters back, to look for any sign of weakness he could show. Jack waited, but he already knew how it would go, while smart the wolves were just beasts in the end with easily seen through behavioral patterns. Closing sounds of running behind him made him spin with glaive already in motion, as he turned the wolf was closer than he anticipated and as the glaive finished its motion it caught the beast at its side, cutting it at the side and smashing it away.
Knowing what would happen next Jack let the excess of power in the glaive swing turn him once again to face another wolf that wanted to bite his neck off. This time he turned too fast and as the wolf jumped at him a glaive was placed in front of its open maw, skewering it through the brain.
[Polearm mastery increased to 18.]
Sounds of running stopped, as all seven wolves that were left stared at Jack, they were smart beasts and as such they simply left, the prey clearly out of their league. He looked to the two wolves on the ground, one dead and second clinging to life, with a large gash at its side. Not wanting the beast to suffer he stabbed it where the heart was supposed to be, he watched enough butchering of the wolves at the camp to know that. The beasts were light, though grown and large they were perhaps a hundred and sixty pounds each. Jack would take them back, his strength allowed him to carry much more than that.
As he walked back he found something else, something better…
[Simple Forest Dungeon
Number of rooms: 1
Difficulty: easy
Maximum party: 10]
It was a boss fight, the only other dungeon he knew and ran through had a large wolf in it, being a simple cave, but it had a max party of three instead of ten. Did it mean it was three times the enemies?
Jack smiled, dropping the two dead wolves to the ground. There would no doubt be better prey inside. He came closer to the entrance, and just like always Jack was teleported inside.
The cave looked like the other dungeon, a large circular space a few dozen meters across and six or seven meters high. This time the enemy was different though, instead of a large two hundred pound wolf there was a boar inside this dungeon. A very very large boar, at first sight, it's weight was at least six or seven hundred pounds. It stood as tall if not taller than Jack himself. After a few seconds of grace it charged.
The cave shook from the sheer size of the beast as it sped up towards Jack, though as always when facing a boar he stood still, confident in his strategy. Right before the boar would smash into him, he jumped, this time putting more force in it as he sailed three meters high, using his strength from all the levels he gained. The glaive he held made a wide arc gaining momentum and strength, at some point it almost scraped the ceiling with its tip.
As he landed at the boar the sharp blade descended and with all its strength slashed into the boar's neck. Blood splattered, but to Jack's amusement it got stopped by the muscles before it could make any real damage. Instantly the boar started thrashing while it slowed down, forcing Jack to jump down to prevent falling right beside the thrashing beast.
The blood was dripping out from the neck wound but it was too slow to be of any threat to the massive beast. Seeing as he lacked strength in his swing he did the only thing he could do. "Status." A single word made a rectangle appear.
[Status
Name: Jack Smith
Race: Human
Level: 13
Titles: Bloodthirsty
Strength: 22
Dexterity: 22
Vitality: 22
Intelligence: 22
Free stat points: 12 ]
Jack used all of his free points into strength, bringing it to 34. As he finished the boar was already close. Once again he jumped into the air and once again made a pirouette in the air, swinging his glaive at the beast neck, this time it cut deeper, breaking the spine of the beast. Out of momentum the beast continued for ten meters more before dropping dead. Jack smiled, that was a lot of meat.
[Level up! You are now level 14.]
[Level up! You are now level 15.]
[Polearm mastery increased to 19.]
[Polearm mastery increased to 20.]
As the dust has fallen down from the impact the giant boar caused Jack could see the treasure the boar was protecting. A single chest was the reward, but he knew from before that it was bigger inside than outside already as last time he found a polearm.
The lid was opened and the reward… Rope. Jack took it in his hands and focused on it causing a notification explaining what he is holding to appear.
[This is a rope.]
… He expected something better…
Once he pulled it out he was teleported outside, the boar's body and head together with him as it also counted as loot. The question was, how he should bring six hundred pounds of meat on his own…