The air molecules of humans drifted into the Wolf Monster’s nose.

A hormonal cascade started inside its brain and it rushed off in the direction of the smell.

As it came closer, the smell became stronger.

It could see two humans in the distance. So it increased its speed.

Just before it was about to lunge for the one who was slightly crouched, it noticed the spears in the ground and instinctually stopped itself from being impaled.

A loud sound. Coming from the other human. A pain in its shoulder, close to its neck. Another sound. Pain in its back. Another sound.

Brian headshotted the big wolf.

“I can’t believe this stupid shit actually worked,” Brian said.

“Imagination is a weapon. Those without it are the first to die,” Jack said.

Inspired by seeing all the wooden spears at the football camp, Jack got an idea. If they made a circle of spears and stood inside them, they could shoot the big wolves from safety.

They made a formation where they would chop big branches in the Balloon Monster zone, then create a circle of spears.

After one circle was completed, they would make another one two meters ahead of the previous one. And if a wolf attacked while they were making that one, they would get inside the previous one.

While they were working, one of them always stood guard.

“You think this’ll stay overnight?” Brian said.

“I dunno. Maybe it’ll disappear. I’m not sure. We never really experimented with trash and shit,” Jack said.

They figured that if they killed enough of these big wolves, something was bound to happen.

When they were under attack, Jack would crouch and stand ready with a 4 meter long spear. While Brian took shots. Brian was the one shooting because he had the Marksmanship (pistol): Rank 1 skill.

Sometimes Jack would manage to impale the wolves with his spear.

“This is so boring,” Brian said.

“Yeah. I really took all the fun out of grinding,” Jack said.

“I’m bored but I’m not complaining. I’d choose this every day over doing what happened with Lucas,” Brian said.

I miss Lucas.

“If he saw what we were doing he’d make fun of us,” Jack said and laughed.

“Incoming! Get back!” Brian said.

Brian was standing in the previous spear circle keeping watch. While Jack was building the new spear circle in front of him.

Jack dropped what he was doing and ran back to the previous circle. He ducked under the spears and went through the small opening. By the time he was holding the long spear, the big wolf was already there.

Faster than usual.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Brian shot at it while it was incoming but he couldn’t tell if any shots hit.

Maybe because Jack wasn’t holding the long spear properly, or for whatever other reason, for the first time the big wolf monster jumped over the spear circle.

There was not a lot of space inside the circle. Jack jumped away and landed on the safe end of the spear encirclement and broke a few spears off the ground but didn’t hurt himself.

The wolf’s foot caught on one of the spears while it was midjump and it flipped headfirst into the ground inside the circle.

Brian quickly fired 6 times while it was falling down.

It died.

“Holy shit! I’m adding more vertical spears to the design. Holy shit! Fuck that was close,” Jack said.

“Crazy ass wolf. Let’s take a break. My hand is shaking.”

They sat down. While Jack was looking at the dead wolf, hanging by its leg like a slaughtered cow, he said, “You think we should skin the ones we killed? Or eat their meat? Maybe we could create leather armor or some shit with it.”

“I dunno, sounds like a lot of work. Let’s just buy kevlar armor or riot gear when we’re back in the real world,” Brian said.

“We should have done that already. Stupid.”

They kept building more and more spear circles. Progress was slow. And sometimes they would have to go all the way back to the Balloon Monster zone to get more wood. And when they went back they would go from circle to circle, in a slow manner where one person was always standing guard at one of the circles while the other one was moving. They started doing this after one wolf attacked them while they were heading back and they had to scramble into a spear circle.

…

They kept slowly grinding and killing wolves.

“Yo, this one has a lot of mana inside it! Like, concentrated!” Brian said.

“Finally! Finally some shit we can use,” Jack said.

The original reason why they were even doing this was because they were hoping for some new challenge or better skill points or just something to make it worth it.

Brian dragged the wolf into the spear circle while Jack stood guard with his gun.

“Okay, keep watch while I get the crystal out.”

Brian cut into the corpse. And retrieved a skill crystal twice as big as the one they usually got from the other monsters, covered in wolf blood.

“Oh shit! That’s gotta be more powerful! Pop it!”

Brian quickly crushed the skill crystal and the yellow energy absorbed into his hand.

Flame Shield Dispel: Rank 1

Cryptography: Rank 1

“Very cool. And, as always, very useless,” Brian said.

“What does the first one do?”

“I have no idea. But the second one just gave me basic info about the types of cryptography that are out there. And I think I can make a basic system we three can use to pass encrypted messages. And I feel like I understand puzzles a little better. Intuitively. I have no idea, man,” Brian said.

They kept grinding more and slowly making more and more spear circles. Suddenly, both of them received a notification in their fields of vision.

Achievement unlocked: Innovative warfare. Please choose a skill…

/////

Jack:

Knife Fighting: Rank 1

Knife Fighting: Rank 2

Python (programming language): Rank 1

Mana generation: Rank 1

Sand to Glass Conversion Mana Blueprint: Rank 1

Healing Mana Blueprint: Rank 1

Origami: Rank 1

Enhanced Bodily Recovery: Rank 1

Speed Counting: Rank 1

Brian:

Shield Defending: Rank 1

Marksmanship (pistol): Rank 1

Right Arm Increased Strength: Rank 1

Mana manipulation: Rank 1

Mana Sense: Rank 1

Enhanced Propriosense in Toes: Rank 1

Enhanced Bodily Recovery: Rank 1

Flame Shield Dispel: Rank 1

Cryptography: Rank 1

Lucas:

Insect Movement Control: Rank 1

Enlarged Penis: Rank 1

Mana sense: Rank 1

Mana Manipulation: Rank 1

Surfing: Rank 1

Arithmetic: Rank 1