Lucas left the camp at sunset along with his bag, which the lady had delivered to him right before he went to sleep. He didn’t want to have to say goodbye to the others, he really sucked at it, so he chose to avoid it and left before anyone had woken up. The people who were on watch didn’t know him, so it was easy to leave.
As he began walking through the forest, he noticed another weird thing this world had changed. At first, he thought he was just imagining things. But now he was pretty sure he had an internal compass. He even used the direction of the sun as a measure, and spun around to prove his theory. Whatever he did, he always knew where North, South, East and West were.
Does that mean this planet has a North and South pole? Probably, he thought. He was a little intrigued about the reason why this didn’t count as an ability. Was it because everyone had? The ability to identify things also didn’t count as an ability, so it should probably have something to do to how elemental of an ability those two are. For the time being, he decided to head North, just so he wouldn’t run around in circles.
He was aware that since he didn’t have a party with him anymore, he should be more careful. So he moved slowly through the trees, hiding every time he heard a noise or saw something. That unexpectedly earned him an ability.
New skill acquired!
Skill: Stealth (Inferior)
Now you will more easily be able to hunt your prey while remaining unnoticed.
Lucas was very happy with it. That was a great skill, especially when traveling alone. Stealth was also placed into skills, along with the Flying Axe, instead of abilities. That proved it had to have some battle usage to be considered a skill.
That made him think if he should do different things to try and get other skills. He looked at the trees around him. Maybe there’s a parkour skill?
It was a little risky, seeing his bones were still frail, even if he was stronger now, but it was worth a shot. Lucas climbed the tree; it was a little difficult to do this while holding the spear. He considered leaving it and continuing with just the axe, but in the end, he decided against. He hadn’t decided yet which weapon he liked best, and while the axe was easier to carry, the spear might still prove useful.
Taking a deep breath, he jumped to the other tree next to him. After a few seconds of stabilizing, he proceeded to jump again to the next one.
He did just that for the next hour, really adapting to this way of moving in the process, when he got a notification. Not the one he was expecting, but still very surprising.
1+ Agility
He quickly checked his status, and there it was:
Status:
Lvl: 3
Name: Lucas Romano
Race: Human
Class: N/A
Health Points (HP): 190/190
Mana Points (MP): 130/130
Stamina: 80/110
Stats:
Strength: 9
Agility: 12
Toughness: 0*
Perception: 11
Vitality: 13*
Magic: 6
Distributable points: 0
Achievements: Special Unique Constitution.
Abilities: Beginner Craftsman 1. Disembowelment. Beginner Skinner.
Skills: Flying Axe, Stealth (Inferior).
He had gained a point in Agility without actually having to level up. That open a lot of possibilities in his mind. How can I best exploit this feature of the system? To increase his Agility, he already knew he could jump between trees. What about the other stats?
After some thought, he reached a couple of tests that he believed were worth trying. First, trying to scout ahead while above trees to try and increase his perception. He wasn’t sure about that one; he had already done a lot of scouting, and nothing had happened. If he decided to take a risk and go too high, he could potentially fall, and that wouldn’t be good. Either way, Perception was still a very mysterious concept for him, so he let that be for the time being.
The other test was a safer bet: he could put some weights on his feet and arms and jump between trees with them, to try and upgrade his Strength and maybe his Toughness.
He was already carrying his bag with some supplies and an axe, but that wasn’t enough to trigger an upgrade in Strength. He had no idea if there was a way to increase his Vitality or his Magic. So he went with the options he had.
First, he needed to hunt a beast. That would be his weight. It became easier to jump between trees, and he soon met a beast.
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Wild Boar — Lvl 2
At first glance, Lucas had already thought it was a boar, but it was weird getting a confirmation. Does that mean that there are other animals from Earth here? Wait… Did he get transported with us?
There was no use thinking about that stuff now, so he put away those thoughts. He had already decided how he would fight. He had gotten pretty good at throwing his spear and wanted to give it a try. After throwing his spear, he would continue the assault with his axe.
There was only one thing that worried him. Would he be able to jump from the tree after throwing the spear? He looked down, hesitating for a few seconds, but in the end shook his head. If he tried to jump and ended up breaking a leg, it would take a while to recover, and that would be a great waste of time. Instead, he would have to climb down really quickly after the throw. That would leave a few seconds for his enemy to prepare, but there was nothing he could do.
He looked at the boar. That would be his first time hunting alone after that Wild Tuk on his first day. He felt more ready now, way more prepared, and it had only been two days. Smiling, Lucas threw his spear with all the strength he could muster. The spear flew rapidly through the sky and descended upon the unsuspecting boar.
The weapon went right through him, opening a great hole in the middle of the beast, who squealed before falling to the ground limply.
*You have killed Wild Boar – lvl 2. Experience earned.*
He didn’t even need to use his axe. He climbed down and reached the body. The whole on the boar was cleanly cut. He had underestimated the effect of the rock point on the spear and his strength compared to a level 2 beast. But it wasn’t only that; he could tell. He remembered that on a few of those video games that he played there was something called a critical attack. If he remembers correctly it was an attack that caused more damage than the regular ones.
Maybe remaining unnoticed until the attack arrived helped triggering this enhanced damage. He wasn’t sure and the system didn’t provide him with any answers. It did make him want to try it out on higher leveled beasts though.
Lucas cleaned the beast quickly. He had already eaten part of the beasts he had hunted with George and his party in between jumping trees, so he was in no need for food at the moment. He would attach the meat to both of his legs, to continue his plan.
After doing that and retrieving his weapon, he climbed back up the tree. It was way harder with the weights, and a little gross too. By now, his pants were already pretty bloody, and he would need to find a replacement for them soon.
His first jump with the weights on was almost catastrophic, and he nearly fell off the tree headfirst. He calmed himself. The level of difficulty increased more than he had imagined. He would have to postpone putting in more weights in his arms until he grew accustomed to it.
An hour later, to his joy, he got a notification.
1+ Strength
He hadn’t gotten an upgrade in Perception, even after hunting two other beasts. And his Toughness hadn’t increased either. But he had almost expected this; the System wouldn’t make it easy for him to upgrade his Toughness. Even so, he was happy, and half an hour later, he got another notification.
1+ Agility
From that, he concluded that would get harder to get an upgrade each time. The first time took an hour, the second an hour and a half. Feeling exhausted from all that exercise, he climbed down, and rested near the dead beast he had hunted not long ago.
It was still day, and he wanted to get a few more miles under his belt. His progress was slow with the weights, but he couldn’t complain because he was actually saving time doing three things at once. First, he was upgrading his Agility; second, his Strength; and third, hunting. He got another level while doing that and, while resting, decided to check his stats:
Status:
Lvl: 4
Name: Lucas Romano
Race: Human
Class: N/A
Health Points (HP): 200/200
Mana Points (MP): 140/140
Stamina: 30/120
Stats:
Strength: 10
Agility: 13
Toughness: 0*
Perception: 11
Vitality: 13*
Magic: 6
Distributable points: 3
Achievements: Special Unique Constitution.
Abilities: Beginner Craftsman 1. Disembowelment. Beginner Skinner.
Skills: Flying Axe, Stealth (Inferior).
It was a shame he couldn’t find a way to upgrade his Perception without using the distributable points, because he could already see the usefulness of this kind of training. Since he could upgrade his Agility and Strength with this method, he could use his distributable points for other aspects.
Looking at it, he wasn’t sure what he should invest in. He was pretty curious about his Vitality, but he had a hunch that would need more than three points to show him what that was all about. Sure, it would be good to recover faster from injuries, but at the moment, with his stealth and strategies, he wasn’t getting injuries apart from a few minor cuts. Perception was another good option, but he wasn’t sure he needed more at the moment. And Magic still remained a mystery.
He racked his brain trying to decide, but in the end, he chose to leave the decision for later. He knew why he was so unsure: the previous times he distributed his points, he had done so after a huge battle. But now he had either killed his opponent with one shot or with the following attack. It was great to be more efficient, but it made him feel that there wasn’t anything immediately that he needed to change. Instead, he would continue his training and try to get more upgrades for “free”.
But first, he needed to rest. His Stamina was almost spent, and he could feel the effects on his body. It hurt all over, making him think of the time he joined the gym and quit a week later. No pain, no gain… now I understand.
It took two hours for him to recover to a decent level. He took this time to eat and rest. And then he went jumping again.
…
Days were spent like this. He hadn’t seen anything besides the forest all that time, not even a single person. All he saw were beasts all around; the majority of them ranged in levels between 1 and 10, but he also saw a couple of scary ones high above that; those he couldn’t even see what level they were, and he made sure to stay as far away from them as he could.
Lucas was also beginning to see more and more fruit as he went deep into the forest, but despite being able to identify them, he wasn’t sure which ones he could eat. Afraid of being poisoned in a forest without anyone around to save him, he decided to keep his diet strictly to meat for now.
He also saw a few more beasts that came from Earth or were of the same species as those from Earth, but he saw many more he never knew. It was interesting learning how to approach each different beast. It had even earned him a point in Perception, but that was it.
By now, he was already carrying weights strapped to his arms and waist and was already feeling that if he wanted to keep gaining points, he would have to find something heavier to wear.
The Agility points had already dried up; jumping from tree to tree wasn’t going to cut it anymore. But he was fine with it, he had gained some sweet points in the past few days. The devilish training had paid off, he thought, with his sweat dripping all over.
His Strength and Agility weren’t the only ones to grow. He had upgraded his Stealth Skill as well when he was hunting a beast level six. Apart from this, he was now pretty good at using the axe. When the enemy was too low-level he would use only his axe to gain some experience with it, and now he preferred it instead of the spear. The spear was still good for the initial strike when the enemy was tougher, though.
He considered making a bow for these occasion but dispelled the idea; he couldn’t see himself using a bow. He never thought about it before, but he really disliked them. Of course, he could see how useful they could be when trying to strike an enemy far away, but he believed that there probably would be more weapons that he could use for that in the future.
He was about to check his status for the first time in days when he heard something. He was in a tree, so he had a good view of what was below, and what he saw next made him almost lose his balance. About ten yards away, he saw a party of people. It had been a long time since he had seen anyone, but that wasn’t what surprised him; it was what they were carrying.
They were in a group of five. One old man was holding something that resembled a scepter but could also be a walking stick, for all he knew. There was also an archer and three people holding swords—actual swords!