Instead of him making all the weapons, Lucas thought it would be better for them to learn how to do it themselves; it wasn’t so hard after all. Since they had no use for a wooden sword or knife, that only left the spear and axe. But seeing as no one would want to get too close to the beast, the spear was the best option for them.
The time consuming part would be making the spear and arrow heads. The rock needed to be sharp, Lucas made sure to remind them. His part on the crafting would consume a lot of time as well. To make a bow, he first needed an axe at the appropriate level of sharpness; and without further delay, he began to work.
Tina was the only one that wasn’t crafting or looking for materials, but she had another important job: to keep track of the beast. It would be a waste to make all the preparations only to found that the Yutik wasn’t there anymore.
…
Lucas was fascinated with the whole process. He hadn’t the slightest idea how to make a bow a couple of days ago, and now, because he had put in some effort to make a weapon, he had all the knowledge he needed.
Back on Earth, people had to work hard to learn every single thing, and as a person who loved to learn, Lucas had spent multiple hours doing just that. Now, with the system, he felt like he had grown wings; the prospect of what he could do, what he could learn burned in him. He was anxious to find out more; that forest couldn’t be all there was to it.
It took a couple of hours for them to finish the crafting session. They were inexperienced after all, and the process in itself was time-consuming. But as he looked at the faces looking at him, he could tell they were proud of themselves. At this point, all of them had the Beginner Craftsman 1 ability. Lucas smiled; he knew what they were feeling, as he also felt the same as he looked at the bow he had crafted.
Low Quality Wooden Bow
Required level to use: 0
A couple of days ago, he could barely make a spear, and now a bow was in front of him, with string and all. He had to admit he was a little surprised he could make a string using only wood at first, but now it seemed obvious.
“All right. Looks like we are ready to go!”
All of them nodded. It didn’t take long for them to find Tina; she didn’t move much and the same was true for the Yutik. It seemed to feed mainly on insects, and seeing there was plenty there, it probably didn’t see any reason to move. That is, until now.
Lucas delivered the bow and arrows to her. They didn’t make many arrows because they couldn’t make a quiver, so she would need to place them somewhere within reach… Yeah, pretty bad setting, but there was nothing they could do at the moment. It seemed the more they made things, the more they realized how much they were lacking,
Tina didn’t seem to mind though, and looked very happy, like Lucas was giving her a present. Which he found funny, given the context.
“So, what’s the plan?” Angela asked, looking at Lucas.
“Why are you asking me?”
“Because you’re the expert,” she said like it was obvious.
“I killed one beast, that hardly makes me an expert.”
“What… didn’t you use to hunt before?” Dan asked, confused.
“I never said that,” Lucas said, laughing internally. They looked at each other, the same confused look on all their faces.
“This is… surprising. But it doesn’t matter. You already killed one, so you have more experience than we do,” George said, decidedly.
Lucas sighed. “All right, but I can’t promise no one will get hurt, we are putting our lives on the line here, you have to have that in mind.” He didn’t want a guilty conscience if anything bad happened. After they all agreed, he continued. “Tina, you should try to climb one of the trees around here and see if you can shoot the beast from there. It will be safer in case it tries to go after you. Once you find a good spot and we start to fight, you have to make sure to only shoot when you know it won’t hit us. Okay?”
She nodded and went to find a good spot. George looked at her with worry but seemed relieved when Lucas said she should stay on a tree to avoid getting attacked.
“Now for us, seeing that you three will go with the spears. I think I will try and use the axe, in case we find a major flaw in fighting with the spear against this enemy. It’s not likely, though, as a pointed weapon is more likely break its defenses, but better safe than sorry.”
Seeing that no one raised any objections, Lucas continued.
“We should approach the beast from different sides, and leave an opening for Tina to shoot from a distance, so it can’t escape. Other than that… I don’t know much about fighting with spears, but I would suggest that you keep the spear always in front of your body, it should make it harder for the beast to hit you.”
Feeling there was nothing more to say, they went to their places. Even from a distance, Lucas could see they were waiting for his signal. He had to admit the whole thing about having people following his commands freaked him out a little bit. In his mind, the whole thing seemed absurd, he killed a beast by luck the other day, and now all of a sudden he was the specialist.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He looked at his axe. It was a standard weapon, but it relieved him that it was recognized by the system, even though he had previously thought of it more as a tool. And it even had a relatively cooler name too.
Low Quality Sharp Rock Axe
Required level to use: 0
The spears only gaining the “Rock Tipped Spear”. Would that mean that the axe was sharper than the spear? It wouldn’t surprise him; it seemed pretty good when he was cutting wood. And he would need it to be too because he was the one who was going to be face to face with the enemy.
He took a deep breath and started moving, cautious at first, but then picked up speed as the adrenaline rushed into his body. Halfway through the beast saw him, and made a weird noise. It wouldn’t flee, Lucas realized, and he didn’t expect it to. His grip on the axe tighten. As they were only four feet away from each other, something that made his blood freeze happened.
Everyone stopped immediately, even the beast, who despite not being intelligent had a natural fear of predators. Right above their heads, an aura they never felt before reached them. Looking up, Lucas saw what looked like a bird, flying high above.
He couldn’t identify the level or the race of the creature at that distance, but he was sure it was on the double digits. If it turned its attention to them, they probably wouldn’t last a single strike. So, they kept quiet, it felt like hours, but it only took a couple of seconds for the bird to disappear in the distance, don’t even looking at them once.
Lucas was already sweating from the experience, but he sprang into action, trying to make use of this distraction. However, as he launched his attack, the beast reacted faster than he thought possible. It moved its body in a way that the axe hit only the shell or whatever that was, and Lucas was surprised when he saw his axe couldn’t even scratch that thing.
Before the beast could charge at him, he got out of the way, and the others arrived. They seemed hesitant, but did what they were supposed to do anyway, putting all their strength onto their spears. As they did so, the Yutik crawled into a ball, protected on all sides by its shell, not even the joints were visible in its current state. The spears seemed to do a little damage, but not enough to penetrate the hard shell, and more worrying was they seemed to bend a little.
Lucas cursed under his breath. “Retreat!” he had to yell, seeing they just standing there after the failed attack. But reminded by his words, they retreated.
Lucas wasn’t sure what to do now. The first time he faced a beast, he hadn’t had the time to plan; it was a battle that lasted seconds, and he was lucky to have won. But now, it was different. He had to keep a cool mind and analyze the situation.
The first thing he noticed was that the shell was too hard, and he wouldn’t be able to do anything to it. On the contrary, it was more likely for them to break their weapons on that thing. But he also saw that the beast’s face and belly didn’t have that protection. He had to wait for an opening, and so they waited for a good three minutes for the beast to make its move.
Lucas soon noticed the flaw on his plan, what if it chooses to just stay there for hours? Apparently, the beast didn’t even need to eat them, seeing as it fed by eating insects. Feeling a little stupid, he decided to take a different approach.
If you won’t come to me I’ll come to you! He started walking forward. Observing the beast’s ball shape, he had a hunch. “Be prepared!” he told the others.
When he was close to the beast, he saw a small eye peeking from inside the ball. He pretended to be oblivious and raised his axe high, prepared to give a mighty strike. Just when he was about to descend, the beast jumped in his direction in great speed. Lucas was expecting an attack however and tilted his body to the side, as he did so he felt a painful sensation on the side of his head. He screamed involuntarily and fell to the ground as the beast passed right by his side.
Waiting there with his spear was George, who didn’t hesitate this time and thrust his spear into the Yutik’s exposed body. The spear got through, but not enough to kill it, as the beast twisted its body and became free again. Lucas predicted that the ball position the Yutik had taken was not merely a defensive one but a decoy too, and so he signaled for someone to get behind him. What he didn’t predict was that speed, or that it would jump like that, almost taking his head off.
He didn’t have time to assess his injuries, but he could feel the warm blood dripping profusely on his neck. After getting hit by the spear, a bloody hole appeared on the Yutik’s chest, but it didn’t stop it. Right after it rolled to Lucas again, who was on the ground, almost defenseless. Lucas tried his best to swing his axe, but he couldn’t put much strength behind it in that position. All it did was send the ball a few inches back, but it didn’t take long for the beast to go after him again, and this time he couldn’t swing the axe in time.
As the ball was about to reach him, an arrow hit the shell with surprising strength, sending the ball a good few meters away, giving Lucas the time to get back up. He looked at Tina gratefully and saw her red face; she seemed to have put all she had into that strike.
Looking at his enemy, he saw that the attack took it by surprise. It didn’t know what hit it. It didn’t get out of his ball form and stood still again. Lucas was feeling a little frustrated. Their weapons weren’t the best to face this type of beast, and if it didn’t want to get out of its shell it would be hard for them to hit it effectively.
“We already caused an injury to it,” he said to the others. “Now all we can do is surround and wait, recover your strengths, and be ready. I’m guessing it won’t be willing to stick around forever with an injury like that.”
It was a risky bet, seeing that he had already recovered from a deadly injury that he suffered yesterday. But he hoped that the beasts didn’t have the same regenerative powers. Either way, there was nothing else they could do; if they struck the beast in that state, it would break their weapons before doing any significant damage.
After a few minutes, his guess proved right. The Yutik leaped toward Dan, who wasn’t ready for it. His spear wasn’t in front of his body like Lucas told him, and he protected himself with his free arm.
All of us heard a cracking sound and scream as he fell with the beast above him. Angela closed in on the Yutik with her spear ready, but the beast jump toward George who was to Lucas’s left, seconds later.
Lucas was waiting for this exact moment, and just as he saw it about to jump, he made his move. In a frenzy, the axe left his hand. He had no idea if this would work, but he couldn’t pass up this chance.
It was perfect. The axe hit the soft part of the Yutik body with great force as it squeaked and fell limply to the ground. The axe still stuck on it.
As the sweet sound of the notification arrived, he breathed a sigh of relief.
*You have killed Yutik – lvl 4. Experience earned.*
New skill acquired!
Skill: Flying Axe (Basic)
Desperate, your weapon leaves your hand, in a last attempt to take down your foe, striking him perfectly. The damage will be 10% stronger when you throw your weapon at your enemy during a battle, and you are more likely to hit your target.