Paper is one of the most used materials on earth, every day, millions of trees are cut down to make paper. But how is such a thing possible? If millions of trees are cut down every day wouldn't the earth be laid bare?

Well, the answer to that is not really, millions are cut in every month, not days. And the reason there are a lot of papers is that a single tree could make you several notebooks. Not just one notebook.

That's a lot of paper, and the fact a lot of people don't even use paper is just saddening. Papers are used arning, reading and especially logistics.

I tried to find wood that was good enough for paper, I rested enough and I started moving again. There are a lot of woods in this forest but wherever I look it's the same type of wood. Maybe I'm not looking at the right places.

I scoured the north of my territory, there are some that I could use as a sample here. In each place, I go I take a small branch or at least some broken tree that fell over.

Some herbs too whenever I see something new. A lot was discovered but the best discovery for me is the wild carrot. I like carrots, food from my childhood.

I can't wait to find some thyme, basil, and pepper too. Those spices and herbs are extremely coveted at these times. I continued my exploration, as I was about to store an item my storage rejected.

My storage is full and I have to go back. Once I got back to my territory and emptied my storage I noticed that I lacked space.

I think I'm going to linger longer for more than a day, I sighed for a bit and started to get working. With a thousand SE on my side, I dedicated that amount to expanding my land. Trees and plants got pushed aside as I went.

But of course, that didn't go unhindered. Animals avoided the noise but the beasts and semi-deity? No, they got attracted. It's like a predator got allured by the scent of blood.

The first one to show itself is a four-legged beast, it's one and a half metres tall and three metres long. Its fur is white and brown in a horizontal manner. It looks like a possum, but the fact that it came here instead of avoiding means it's far from the species of a possum.

It sniffed its surroundings and stopped as soon as it saw me. It bared its teeth and whiskers were reared. The coat of its fur also started to stand up making it look enlarged from my perspective.

Nice, a new type of meat. But I don't plan on grabbing something I couldn't store. I already have the snake meat that has lasted for a while now, I still haven't finished it yet so I'll just take its SE.

I raised my wooden spear and prepared to propel it with my power. But the damn thing started to spit in my direction, I dodged but it made a mess behind me, so I propelled the spear between its eyes but it was faster than I thought.

It dashed sideways, utilising its four limbs to run around instead of running away, this placed me in a disadvantageous position, trees surrounded me and my spears were made of wood. It won't pierce trees without destroying them.

The worst case is that I expend all of my spears, and then I'm done for. Fighting the snake is easier, If the dude was metres long I would've landed a hit even if it's fast.

The Possum is smarter than I thought, it became erratic, and its speed was incredible every time it moved it was a blur. Why won't you just play like your animal counterpart? Just play dead already.

The possum dashed as my back was turned around, but I didn't go here unprepared. I felt my SE drop and I knew the forcefield I erected behind me was activated.

The possum was stuck in the air, and I was confused why it could move in the air as if there was solid ground under its feet. I didn't waste any time.

Instead of shooting my spear I got close and personal and swung my spear. The possum jumped up, tucking its leg together as it spun in the air and when it landed it ran again.

"This little…"

I got information from that though, it's vulnerable when it's in the air because it doesn't change trajectory whenever it's airborne. I kept myself looking like I'm vulnerable.

Now with a plan to take the possum down. I waited, its body moving in a blur as it circled me, it might expend all of its energy soon, but I'm not hopeful about that.

My SE dropped and I turned around, the possum did it again, this is where I took my chance. I warded it off with the spear in my hand, it jumped just as the first time by tucking its legs.

However, I was already prepared. Before it even made contact with the ground I already threw my spear, the spear went through its neck unhindered. I thought that was the end of it, but no.

The possum decided to be an annoyance and when it hit the ground it zoomed away, crashing into multiple trees in the process. The biggest annoyance is that it crashed into my territory.

The effort I placed into that place is now being trashed by a speedy rat. I can't follow its movement at all and that's what made it more annoying.

After a few more minutes of struggling the rat stopped moving, blood was all over the place and my territory was ruined. What a fucking annoyance.

This will take a while to fucking fix, and I have some paper to make as well. The rat started turning to SE, it gave me four thousand SE at least, replenishing my almost depleted SE. I sighed.

I swear to god if I manage to jumpstart the civilization of the tribe to the iron sword era I could probably do more than now, but we're not there yet. So helping them to survive for now is a must.

I started fixing the territory, it would at least require another set of processed wood. Since my SE is replenished I decided to spoil myself and process the wood with my power.

Hundreds of wood are processed in hours. I didn't like that I had to stay another day here. It means two years had already passed in the mortal realm.

I didn't mind that much though, I gave them a lot of quests to pursue, I, on the other hand, had the quest to make paper.

"WHICH I NEEDED FOR LOGISTICS!!!"

I can't help but yell frustratingly, paper was made when an Eastern guy used some wooden pulps and placed them in water. Before paper, they used parchment, the other was vellum, but those two needed animal hide! The village has other uses for that!

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I collected wood overnight, instead of resting I decided to stay and finish before going back to the mortal realm. I started processing the wood.

And of course, I needed to pulp the wood for the paper. Too much work, too much work…

***

[Year 11]

Over half of the people in the village have finished a significant amount of their tasks. The ones benefiting the most are the hunters, in their much-needed disposition.

It's been half a year, and the monsters won't stop roaming. Every single Hunter is needed to fight.

"It's becoming more and more dangerous," Arkum spoke as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"Don't lose a single Hunter."

Half a year. The number of monsters the dungeon had spurted had doubled. The hunters have been slowly whittling down their numbers to no avail.

Arkum looked at the number of the hunters with him, a dozen. Out of a hundred people in the village, only a handful could be trained in hunting. They have defended the village a lot of times, and the number of monsters not even dipping down is a very concerning matter.

The Scorn Wolves which possess red hide and tenacious grit are one of the few monsters spewed by the dungeon. One of the truly dangerous ones is the Scorn bears.

Bears are already a tough nut to crack but a dungeon bear? Something that would make them kneel, Arkum's friends got damaged by this bear, and of course, their number fell. Thankfully the Hunter survived but became a cripple.

Not only that, but the cause of the crippled man's fall is because of his spear, it didn't pierce through at the right moment, it bent and broke. The sight of that made the men involved learn that they're vulnerable to mortality and how fragile truly they are.

However, that doesn't stop them from coming back to such hard tasks. With new skills and renewed stats, they're strong, a responsibility that was laid before them.

Arkum looked at his status.

Name: Arkum

Species: Human

God patron: Hadro

Titles:

~0~0~0~

Str: 15

Agi: 10

Int: 9

Sprt: 9

Lck: 7

Skills:

[Spear Hunter D-]

[Hunter Aura E+]

[Piercing Blow E]

[Thrust E]

~

Thanks to these skills the hunters could survive another day, also the tasks given by the patron God have proven to work wonders. Their stats have risen multiple times and have given them an advantage through their arduous times.

A roar reverberated through the woods, birds chirped and flew away from the source, the thunderous pounding of the ground as if a herd was merged into one.

Arkum and the other hunters stand up, today they have one mission, one task, and one quest to complete.

[Quest]

[Mastery of the spear]

-Kill a Bear alone or serve a bear's head with its organs as an offering.

Reward: str 5+

~

The sound stopped and the perpetrator presented itself. A fur slicked back and reddish, its eyes glowing yellow as it stared down the group of humans.

Arkum stood his ground, the Scorn bear. This one has whittled their numbers as they whittled theirs. It is thrice the size of a normal human.

It huffed steam as if its inside were at a constant boiling point, it roared. The noise almost stunned the men in front of it. Bloodlust emanates to the deepest of its bones, though, the keyword being almost is for a reason.

The men had experience dealing with this beast. They weren't stunned, only shocked. They have to deal with this for half a year already, something as being roared in your face is something trivial.

Arkum had the Hunter aura, he possesses the best tool out of everyone in the group, as the description says of the skill: "Every Hunter available within the area will be boosted depending on the number of the hunters and every Hunter would be affected."

And that will be the biggest sword at play and Arkum knows this. Once the bear started charging the group immediately moved around, spacing from each other.

The bear got confused for a moment, but only for a moment. It started charging towards Arkum, no matter how dangerous this was Arkum did not falter.

Instead, he waited, while his wooden spear was brandished he waited for the right time to strike. The bear rushed, fully showcasing its might. However, no matter how threatening it is, Arkum never backed down.

Once it was closed enough, it raised its paw. Shavik pierced his spear through the bear's back. It let out an indignant roar, but Arkum wouldn't let it see through who gave it pain in the back.

He moved forward, and with his only active skill, he thrust forward. [Thrust], he activated, a surge of energy filling his arms and imbuing his wooden spear.

The bear sensed this surge of power suddenly emerging out of Arkum, and instead of letting it hit its head it immediately turned its whole body around.

This caught Arkum off guard but didn't make him falter, the swinging body of his enemy was there, unguarded and he wouldn't miss up on the chance.

Shavik backed up, letting the spear stick to the bear, good thing he didn't only pack one spear or else he was out of the fight. The bear faced the other hunters, but that wasn't a good decision either.

Arkum's [Thrust] was aimed at its hips, fighting a lot of bears and watching it get butchered was enough to give Arkum anatomical knowledge of the bear.

The thrust of the spear hit, and not only that it dig deep it went and lodged itself between cartilage making the bear roar in agony.

Instead of stopping the bear, it roared in rage, it went berserk. Without a care in the world, the bear launched itself towards Shavik.

"Shavik!"

One of the hunters yelled and activated one of his skills. He ran and bashed his entire body to the bear with minimum effect, however, that effort was enough.

The bear got thrown off balance for its paws to miss, a glancing blow only landing on Shavik, one that didn't impair his movement. As a gash was only enough to make him bleed.

"Roar!"

The bear's attention now focuses on the assailants, its head turned and tried to lash out but it was too late for the bear. The hunters were more than organized in their assaults.

When it turned its head around it let its neck bare for the others to attack. One man stabbed its neck, halting its turn around in the process, however, it didn't damage anything vital.

The other stab that came from another man finished it, as its stab was directly in the bear's spine. It made the monster a cripple.

The group of hunters stopped to catch their breaths, even though their labour was divided it didn't stop them from being tired.

They also have to bring the bear back to the village to be processed. Since this is the sixth bear, it's Arkum's time to take it and finish his quest.

"Huff… let's rest and haul this back to our village."

All of them agreed this was the 6th bear of the week, and they would be exhausted. However, they believe that their patron God is watching, and will give a solution in plain sight.

It's up to them to work for it.

Kavo was treating an injured Hunter, a week ago more and more of them became apparent in his hut, so much so that they made a temporary shelter for it.

Well, to call it a shelter might be an overstatement. It's a shelter consisting of wooden stakes with dried palm leaves as roofing, though there aren't any walls. It might as well be a temporary station.

Kavo used this place a lot, and most of the time they were hunters who he had to attend to, but he never denied them, it gave him a chance to exert his skill and ability. At first, he wanted to find a way to discern fruits from being poisonous and edible.

But now he understood why their Patron God decided to give him some medical skills, he was good at it. He was so good at discerning what to do with a wound and what to do with a broken bone.

And he took pride in it.

Right now the Hunter in front of him has a swelling wound. He looked at the man and asked.

"Did you wash your wound?"

"Yes, I did what you said."

"Was the water boiled?"

"I-I need it boiled?"

"Yes, and when I mean boiled, I mean water that has been boiled and cooled down."

"Oh."

Kavo went ahead and pulled a jar filled with water, the jar is of clay, well, mud in their perspective. It's fragile compared to modern jars. But for them, a jar is a luxury, most of the time they share jars.

"Now, don't move."

Kavo had crushed some herbs after the integration of the migrating tribe. Thanks to yak fur he got some clothes which were helpful to his medical expenditure.

The crushed herbs were placed in the middle of the cloth and tied close, making this pouch-like shape. He dipped the jar and let it sit for a while.

When he pulled it out he went ahead and squeezed the cloth, letting the herb-infused water land on the wound of the Hunter.

It hurts.

"You can scream, just don't move."

Kavo is quite desensitised to such wounds, he had seen the worst in some but the most compelling reason why is because he needed to get used to it.

A lot of hunters would go back wounded, and he is aware of why, the dungeon was spewing more and more monsters as months passed by.

Moments later, when Kavo finished tending the wounded he saw a group come out of the forest with a Scorn Bear in tow.

The village couldn't cheer, most of them could see the gravity of the situation. If this keeps going the number of hunters will go down, and hunters are very skilful, it's not just thrusting your spear it's about patience, focus and flexibility.

These traits are not learned in a single year. That's why hunters are very valuable. The hunters gave the bear to the butcher, which they accepted. Bones, meat, hide, and organs.

Everything except bones and organs was taken away, and the skull and organs were presented on the altar by Arkum. The offering glowed in an orange light before disappearing.

"I feel like I've been given strength."

Arkum finished his quest, his strength now greater, he hoped that this newfound power would be put to use for the village. He also wished that the monsters would at least stop coming.

But that's just wishful thinking.