Skinning the wolf took a lot longer than he expected it would. Although anyone could clearly see that a novice butchered it, if you asked him it still looked pretty impressive. Running his hand through the fur, it was extremely soft. He wondered if he could make a winter coat out of it, it was just that fluffy.
As the last rays of the sun pierced through the forest canopy, it hit him that he had been fighting and fending for his life for over 10 hours. Not once did he think of home or any other humans at all. Instead, he thought about getting stronger. Before he could continue pondering, his stomach rudely interrupted. Being deprived of food for the better part of a day certainly didn't make it (or him) happy. To appease his intestinal overlord, he quickly grabbed some sticks and even cut apart a bush for firewood. He hoped the wood wouldn't be too green, but it’s not like he had a choice.
Grabbing two rocks he found on the ground, he hit them together. A pretty spark formed but the rocks shattered. Grunting and annoyance at his increased strength, he looked for more rocks. Fortunately for him, there were plenty of rocks around.
After around 15 minutes of trying, and failing, to get a spark to ignite, he finally succeeded. Skewing some wolf on a stick he allowed it to roast. A mouthwatering aroma drifted from the meat. He could barely hold back his hunger but he knew eating raw meat wouldn't be a good idea. Finally, the meat was finished, and he bit into it like a savage animal. He quickly grilled seconds, then thirds. Now sated, he collapsed on the luxurious pelt and faded into the dark abyss of sleep.
Dawn came, bringing with it that persistent time of day when one must decide whether to listen to their primal instincts or to keep them suppressed. He didn't get that choice; he heard a cracking sound like someone taking a chisel to ice. Then he heard the sound of the wind. Not winds rustling through the trees on a pleasant autumn day, but that of a hurricane or a tornado. loud, whistling, and deadly.
Sitting up abruptly, he cursed whatever malicious being had disturbed his beauty sleep. On the brink of launching into a tirade, he stopped because he saw something. It looked like a portal from a fantasy novel. A floating blue circle, thinner than glass, and seemingly leading nowhere, appeared before him. He was confused, as it appeared out of, well, nowhere. So he did the logical, super-intelligent thing and threw a rock at it. The rock just disappeared; it didn't come out of the portal hitting him in the face. Which he half expected for some weird reason. Then he remembered and quickly brought up the prompt.
*Ding *
Every day a portal will open taking you closer to the center of Atlas.
The distance covered will be determined by that day's achievements.
He facepalmed, remembering that the system, literally, told him a portal would open every day. He hesitated before walking through the portal a couple of seconds later. “Screw it. If the system wanted to kill me, it would have done it already.”
Grabbing the wolf's pelt, he stepped through the portal. Luckily, his worst fears of his insides becoming his outsides didn't happen, he didn't vomit, or explode. Instead, it was like he just walked through a door. Looking around him, he saw a great plane. Far behind him were the familiar, looming trees. Ahead of him was a herd of massive buffalo. Much like the deer, these buffaloes were significantly larger than their earthly counterparts. The tip of the buffalo’s horns loomed roughly 4 m above the ground and from head to tail, they spanned almost 6 m. The buffalo’s must have weighed at least seven or eight tons. Surprisingly, there were no calves among the heard only fully grown specimens.
Emmanuel lowered himself slowly to the ground. He hoped the buffalo’s hadn’t noticed him yet. He crept slowly forward through the tall grass. Much like the buffalo’s and other wildlife, the grass was monstrous in size, and he could easily hide within it. He dropped the wolf pelt and continued to creep forward. Before he could draw his sword and cause some havoc, he opted to pause, pondering his decision. The buffalos looked strong, which meant they were probably at a pretty decent level. So he might be able to get some good XP if he were able to take them down. But, on the other hand, he had thought the same thing about the wolf. And, well, his arm (miraculously regenerated as it was, was a testament to what happens when one fights opponents they shouldn't. But, then again, His stats and skill had skyrocketed since fighting with the wolf. Furming his resolve, he took his customary breath, drew his sword, and prepared for another battle.
Emmanuel sat upon the massive corpse of a bull. He reflected upon the fight. He was surprised by the buffalo's level. Most of them were level eight, with one or two level sevens and the large bull was level nine! Yet the fight was laughably easy, probably due to his Improvement in skill but also his monstrous new stats.
Hopping off the beast, he wiped his blade on its hide. Naturally, he was sad to let all of the meat go but it's not like he could store it or even eat all of the meat. He decided to go look for something else to hunt, hopefully, something a bit stronger than the Buffalo. But before he could he was interrupted by an aggravating sound.
*Ding*
You have reached level 8. Your stats have been increased and you have 2 status points to allocate.
Go forth and grow fast and let your strength be a testament to your resolve.
He put the two points into his Perception and moved on. He experienced little change, at least in comparison to the massive one from yesterday. Looking across the field he didn't see any more Buffalo herds, so he just continued walking. and he walked and walked some more. Then he started running because he got bored of walking. When he was about to give up, he finally spotted something in the distance: a herd of Buffalo. This herd was significantly larger than the one he had run into before, with four separate groups each led by a bull about the same size as the level nine.
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But the thing that really made this herd interesting was what stood in the middle. In the middle, there was a solitary large bull at least half again as big as any other buffalo. The bull's horns were silvery instead of the brown most of it’s kin possessed. Additionally, it had a reddish-gold pelt that glimmered in the sunlight. The thing looked strong judging from the feeling he got from it; however, it still surely wouldn't be a match for the wolf.
Looking down at his arm it had grown another 5 cm. The arm still had a long way to go before his hand would regrow, but progress was progress, no matter how small. At the rate that his arm was currently growing back, he suspected it would be fully back to normal within five to six level-ups.
Besides doing what he normally did, this time he actually used his brain for once and scouted out the situation. After roughly 30 minutes of scouting, Emmanuel noticed that only one group at a time would leave the protection of the large Buffalo. Then they would come back and another group would go off to find something.
This pattern presented him with the perfect opportunity to eliminate one of the groups of Buffalo while avoiding the majority of the herd. He just had to wait until the next group left. Not too long after one of the herds arrived, another departed -- like clockwork.
After around 5 minutes of stalking the Buffalo, he observed that they stopped at a watering hole. Every member drank deeply from the water -- except for the largest bull, who watched over the herd. Emmanuel quickly drew his sword and imbued it with his skill. He felt energy flowing from his core into his blade. Four seconds later he leaped from the cover of the tall grass. Holding his sword above his head, he swung down at the bull's neck.
The bull was unable to move in time and Emmanuel’s sword hit flesh, then bone, then flesh again. For a moment time seemed to freeze; but soon time reasserted itself and the bull's enormous head hit the ground with a wet thud. Blood poured from the wound like a geyser. The other members of the herd lifted their heads from the watering hole. Seeing their dead leader they each let out moos of remorse and anger. The herd turned to charge at him.
After dealing with the beasts he returned to the remainder of the herd. When their friends didn't return, the herd didn't go to investigate; instead they just moved in a different direction. After around 25 minutes of following, the herd stopped and continued to graze, and soon enough another portion of the herd split off and he followed it.
One by one he eliminated each group until he stood before the leader of the herd. It was surprising that it was so easy and that the herd didn't catch on. Then again, as he was stalking them nothing particularly spoke of an intelligent nature.
He took a deep breath in and out, then he imbued his blade and swung for the Buffalo's neck. After all, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The Buffalo seemed to realize what he was doing but it was too late and his blade sunk into its neck. But unlike with its lesser brotherin, this blow wasn't fatal; the blade stopped. Emmanuel quickly realized his mistake; he pulled out the blade but it was too late. The Buffalo had an opportunity and it didn't squander it. It rotated its head, colliding with his sternum. Luckily, the horn didn't hit him, otherwise the blow would have been fatal. Instead, he heard a couple of cracks and was sent flying through the air, hitting the ground hard.
He once again thanked his lucky stars that his class had increased his Constitution along with his titles. Looking over the bull's impressive size, he doubted his sword was long enough to pierce any vital organs except for maybe the brain. That meant he'd either have to one by one eliminate the beast's legs like a lumberjack cutting through trees, or he'd have to go for the eyes. However, considering how high off the ground the eyes were and how likely the bull was to protect them, it was a longshot. Trying to cut off its neck was also unlikely, as the beast's guard was already up and Emmanuel doubted he could cut through its bone.
He remembered his first fight in the new world. The deer charged him and then he got an idea. Dodging headbutt after headbutt from the bull as far and as fast as he could, after a couple of close calls, he finally reached around 20 metters distance from the massive Buffalo. He looked the beast in the eyes and saw its rage. Rage for killing its herd. Rage for the pain Emmanuel had inflicted upon him. And any animal, but especially a large herbivore when enraged and you face them head on, tends to do the same thing: it tends to charge.
Stamping its hooves on the ground, the bull leaped forward. The bull must have been traveling at 150 km an hour. If Emmanuel proved unable to avoid the attack, he would probably die from the impact. Although only a fraction of a second had passed, the bull was almost upon him. it seemed to move in slow motion. Tensing his muscles, he jumped, praying that it would be enough. Time sped up and he was in the air, the bull charging towards him; praying that he wouldn't land poorly, he extended his legs and braced for impact. He cleared the bull's massive head and landed on its back. With the help of his legs and the stub of his arm, he was able to turn around, scooting forward. The bull continued to charge, seemingly oblivious to the little human on its back.
Eventually, it seemed to catch on but Emmanuel had already made his move. Now facing forwards he brandished his blade. He imbued his sword one last time. He poured everything he had into the blade and it took almost a dozen seconds before he was out of mana. But the expenditure was not in vain. The blade was a solid blue and the formerly misty aura around the blade was gone. In its place a translucent construct of mana glowed, extending another 100 cm beyond the sword’s point and 25cm beyond its width.
Emmanuel plunged the blade through the eye socket. He felt a little resistance but then his blade pierced through the organ and, with a wet squelch, he completely submerged his sword into the bull’s enormous eye socket.
The bull continued to move forward but then slowly stopped. It stood still as a statue before it twitched and fell into its side. Unfortunately for Emmanuel, he was still on top of the bull. As the tremendous bull hit the ground, so too did Emmaneul’s leg followed immediately by all of the massive tonnage of the dead bull’s girth. Now, although his Constitution and his Strength had increased massively, the bull was still at least seven tons. And a 7-ton corpse suddenly hitting your leg wasn't going to do you any favors.
Emmanuel’s leg shattered as if an uncoordinated bodybuilder crushed uncooked spaghetti. When the wolf died it luckily didn't hit him; this time he wasn't so lucky. The bull twitched one more time then died.
*Ding*
You have killed level 12 Don Grass Bull and you have gained experience.
*Ding*
You have reached level 9. Your stats have been increased and you have 2 status points to allocate.
Go forth, grow fast, and let your strength be a testament to your resolve.
The level up was welcome news. He knew he was so close to level 9 before and now he felt extremely close to level 10. Another herd of bulls would push him over to 10. He wondered if he would get any special bonus or if anything would happen at the double digit mark. Both of the beasts he had fought that were above level 10 were significantly stronger than they should be. He wondered if it was a thing unique to monsters or if humans and other sentient races would also get that bonus at level 10.
A couple of seconds later he began to feel a tingling sensation in his arm and leg. His arm grew another 5 cm and instantly his leg felt fine. Now he just had to figure out how to get out from underneath the bull. But before he could worry about his current predicament, five short, green figures armed with long spears appeared from the undergrowth and surrounded him.