“Another day another pig to butcher!” I woke up in the morning with a huge smile on my imaginary face, as I looked into the hole where a pig was struggling to escape.
“I didn’t have a good night of sleep, as I was sleeping with one eye open because of that flying bat, so don’t mind if I dig into our little friend early.” I spoke as I wanted to move my roots to the pig's body, but then I remembered something annoying.
“Crap I don’t have enough mana, I guess I'll wait until my mana will regenerate a little bit more and it will suppress the boar's health. *Sigh*” I said and started to wait, I couldn’t even leave the boar alone as I was afraid that the roots would wither away and become brittle and the boar would escape in the same way as the rabbit did.
Time slowly passed and the day became night, I waited and waited until my and the wolf's combined mana got to thirty. The boar already started to move and struggle inside the hole, but the narrow walls and the roots didn’t let him escape.
*Wheee…* A muffled cry sounded from the hole.
“Sorry piggy I am sure if our situations were reversed you wouldn’t even give me a glance before taking out a bite from me.” I said as I started to pull out the boar from the hole, it was a cruel world and I already accepted it long ago, the weak die and get eaten by the strong.
It was a lot harder to pull the boar out of the hole than I expected, it took me around fifteen minutes until I succeeded, I fell on the ground wheezing strongly for air.
“Goddammit you are heavy, but that means more meat for me.” I raised my body and slowly started to walk to the boar. Some of my roots were already in its body so it was easy for me to penetrate deeper into its flesh and use the *Life Steal* skill.
After using it twice I felt a wave of hot soup going through my roots into my body giving me the feeling of invincibility, of course, I knew that it was just an illusion of my withering state.
“No matter how much life force I will have in my body it doesn’t mean that it will be whole and healthy. It will be the same as an amputee who would be technically healthy but wouldn’t be able to really move his body, or worse, “healthy” and dying at the same time as one of his organs have completely shattered.” I thought to myself before moving with the wolf to the boar.
I bit into its neck and immediately used the *Life Steal* skill, time and time again.
“Hmm there is a cooldown of a few seconds before I can use the skill once more, this is very important for me to know. As if I ever get into a death or life situation again those few seconds will mostly be very crucial.” I said as I used the *Life Steal* skill once more.
*Experience reached the desired quantity “Visavil Bush” leveled up to Lv4*
“Wow, this is something I haven't heard in a long time.” I laughed as I heard the good news from the system, but then it hit.
“Wait a second, why did I level up just now?” I started to panic as I remembered the insane battle with the devil cat once more.
“I didn’t get any experience when the devil cat died, don’t tell me that this bastard is still alive and will come back to hunt me once more!” I really started to panic and to move from one spot to another thinking about all the scary possibilities of what could happen.
“Think, think, what happened, after the battle where did the devil cat gone to…?” I was doing my best to remember but I just couldn’t, as I was getting more and more agitated a cold feeling suddenly filled my mind as the *Calm Mind* forcefully calmed me down.
“*Phew* I need to calm down, it's alright, nobody is going to hunt me like that again. *The Shadow Mark* on my body is gone and I am safe here.” I said to myself as I was getting calmer and calmer.
“And who said that the devil cat didn’t die, look at the huge bunny that was here not too long ago he escaped into the night and died, I didn’t get any experience from him either.” I thought to myself as I remembered the huge bunny that ran away from my clutches.
There is no chance that he is still alive with the wounds he had, not only he wouldn’t be able to escape any monsters of the night, the blood on his body would attract many of them as well.” Running around bloodied in the forest during the day was dangerous and doing it at night was just a suicide for sure, so I was one hundred percent sure that the huge rabbit died.
“What a shitty system gives experience only by last hitting, what is the point in all of these if it was a game it would be the shitty toxic game ever.” I said to myself even though I didn’t even remember any games from my past life.
“Alright, now that this is done I need to check my status.” I said and used the *Self Awareness* skill.
***
*Self Awareness Status*
-Visavil Bush Lv4-
Experience: 16/85
Rarity: Uncommon
Health: 6/14
Mana: 3/47
Stamina: 4/12
Health regen: -0.35/week (-2) + (0.4)
Mana regen: 0.9/hour (-3)
Stamina regen: 0.6/hour (-1.4) + (0.33)
Race: Berry Bush
Damage Resistances:
Slash: 15, Blunt: 34, Piercing: 36, Cold: 20, Heat: 15, Fire: 8
Dark: 88, Light: 45, Mind: 132, Soul: #%($
Status: Intelligent(Unique), Symbiosis
Skills:
*Magic Perception Lv5* *Self Awareness Lv4* *Calm Mind Lv6* *Inspect Lv5* *Rage Lv1* *Killing Intent Lv2* *Pain Resistance Lv2* *Mana Manipulating Lv2* *Wood Element Control Lv4* *Dig Lv4* *Stealth Lv4* *Detection Lv3* *Lifesteal Lv2* *Poison Resistance Lv1* *Item Crafting Lv2* *Stamina Storage Lv2* *Throwing Lv3* *Lesser Hand To Hand Combat Lv2* *Grow Lv3* *Increase Mana Regeneration Lv1* *Lesser Spear Mastery Lv1* *Thorns Lv2* *Falling Damage Resistance Lv1* *Roll Lv1* *Fruits Production Lv1* *Mana Storage Lv2* *Overtake Lv1* *Mind Wave Lv1* *Evil Lv1* *Digging Lv1* *Lingua Language Lv4* *Forced Absorption Lv2* *Lesser Sword Mastery Lv1* *Soul Link Lv2* *First Aid Lv2* *Wooden Puppet Lv2* *Taunt Lv2* *Focus Time Lv1*
Titles:
*Clutz* *Novice Trapper* *Guardian* *Pyromaniac*
*****
-Young Wild Wolf Lv10-
Experience: 73/100
Health: 14/40
Mana: 0/4
Stamina: 18/18
Health regen: 1.5/day(-2.5)
Mana regen: 0.6/hour (-0.6)
Stamina regen: 1.5/hour (-1.5)
Race: Canine.
Damage Resistances:
Slash: 45, Blunt: 37, Piercing: 30, Cold: 86, Heat: 36, Fire: 27
Earth: 63, Mind: 36
Status: Weakened(Strong), Sick(Mild), Symbiosis
Skills:
*Consume Lv2* *Iron Stomach Lv2* *Adrenaline Rush Lv3* *Enchanted smell Lv4* *Metal Bite Lv2* *Bleeding Resistance Lv1* *Pain Resistance Lv2* *Stealth Lv2* *Detection Lv3* *Killing Intent Lv2* *Cold Resistance Lv2* *Falling Damage Resistance Lv1*
***
“Health and Stamina got raised by one while Mana was raised by three looks like I am really going to become a mage, where is my letter of acceptance to the magical school though!?” I joked as I looked through the wolf's stats.
“Nice the *Weakened* debuff got weaker, and the health regen became much better, if this goes like this before long the wolf will be completely healthy.” I thought to myself as I looked at the boar.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Well, now what we are going to do with you.” I smiled as I cut the roots that connected me and the boar, they immediately withered away.
“Every time I see this I always find it fascinating, how do they even hold themselves?” I asked myself a question I wouldn’t get an answer for.
“Meh, who cares now I have a bigger problem, how the hell am I going to butcher this thing? I don’t even have a knife.” I looked at the boar thinking to myself how to fix this problem.
After thinking for a long time I just sighed and said, “Forget it I don’t have a cutting skill, so I can only use the sharp Gravis stones to do the work, I hope it won't be hard.” And hard indeed it was.
First I tried to remove the blood of the boar so I had to raise it somewhere higher. At first, I tried to tie him up to the tree but gave up on that idea as he was just too heavy.
“Damn, how much do you even weigh? Should be at least around sixty kg, while I with the wolf barely weigh what, thirty-five?” I complained about the boar weight but on the other hand, I was quite happy as it meant that I had more food to myself.
I dropped the idea of raising him up the tree and moved it closer to the hole that he was in, and gently pushed its head down so that it would be lower than its body. There I cut the main veins on his neck, it took me many times until I was able to cut through his thick skin, “It is a lot easier to pierce its skin but to cut it would be hard…”
Blood started pouring into the hole but for some reason, it was really thick, “Is it because we used the *Life Steal* skill on the poor bastard?” I asked looking weirdly at the blood,
“By the looks of it, we didn’t really drink its blood, or maybe just a little bit?” I thought to myself as I waited till the boar stopped bleeding.
While waiting I went and tied the sharp Gravis stone to a short branch and made a crude knife from it.
“Hmm, this will do…” I said as I examined the knife it wasn’t perfect but I didn’t have anything else so it had to do, I walked back to the boar it had already almost completely bled out.
“Took a while, alright now it's time to cut this thing… How do I do this…?” I asked and held the crude knife to the boar's body. I had never butchered any animal before in this life and I was pretty sure that I hadn't in my last one too.
“I guess I start from the pelt?” I didn’t know what to do so I went after the most obvious one, and it took me three whole hours to only skin this boar, and even after all that work the job wasn't that good.
“Shit there is a hole…” I said as I was holding a huge crudely cut pelt with a big hole in the middle of it and a few smaller ones on the sides.
“A butcher will not come out of me.” I said as I walked to the boar carcass and started to try to cut into it. At first, I thought of removing the organs but my shitty blade barely could cut into the boar's flesh.
“Why don’t you cut!!!” I shouted as I hit the handle of the knife with a stone, it took me another two hours to do that, and at this point, I started to feel weak as most of my mana was gone. So I took a short rest and continued as I woke up and after a few more hours of hard work, I finished butchering the boar.
***
*Skill learned “Butchering”*
*Butchering* - Helps the user to butcher an animal more easily and keep the quality of the item at its best condition, mostly gotten by chefs and butchers alike. One famous butcher can even butcher a crocodile with a wooden spoon.
***
“Wooden spoon!? Fuck you! Ten hours!!! It took me ten whole hours to cut this shitty boar!” I shouted at the system as I was sure that it added the last story part just to mock me.
“Why haven’t you given me this skill in the middle of me butchering the boar? Why did I get it only at the end?!” I shouted out a question but of course, didn’t get an answer.
After taking a few minutes to calm down, I took all the boar meat that I was able to scavenge and washed it in the pond from all the blood and dirt that got onto it. As I finished I took its leg and started to walk at the campfire area.
I lit up the campfire surprisingly from the first hit of the stone, “Lucky I guess it was with the help of the new title.” I smiled inside as I threw in some dry leaves and grass at the campfire.
“Burn burn muahahaha!” I laughed as I held the big pig’s leg in my hands above the flames hearing the crackling of the fire. It took me around an hour to cook the leg.
*Skill learned “Cooking”*
***
*Cooking* - Helps the user to better cook food and more easily prepare complex dishes. There is a chance that well-cooked meals will have temporary bonuses to them. One legend says that a famous cook made a dream-like soup from only an axe and water.
***
*Gulp* I gulped as I held this beauty in front of my face, completely ignoring the bullshit about an axe that the *Inspect* skill showed me.
“I can’t believe that I've gotten to this moment.” I almost started to cry as I moved the leg to the wolf's mouth, as I gave the first bite I felt as if my mind exploded and a new world opened before me.
*Crunch!* *crunch!* *crunch!*
The sounds of me crunching on the bone sounded as I devoured the meat of the leg and continued eating the bone. Sadly it was too hard for me to eat or else I would have already eaten it too.
“This is what I am talking about! Of course, this would be a lot better with salt and other seasoning but we can’t have everything in this world.” I said as I continued to bite into the bone as if I was a dog while wagging my tail.
I opened my status to check something and to my surprise, I and the wolf had a mild healing status.
***
*Self Awareness Status*
-Visavil Bush Lv4-
Experience: 16/85
Rarity: Uncommon
Health: 6/14
Mana: 14/47
Stamina: 8/12
Race: Berry Bush
Damage Resistances:
Slash: 15, Blunt: 34, Piercing: 36, Cold: 20, Heat: 15, Fire: 8
Dark: 88, Light: 45, Mind: 132, Soul: #%($
Status: Intelligent(Unique), Symbiosis, Healing(mild)
*****
-Young Wild Wolf Lv10-
Experience: 73/100
Health: 15/40
Mana: 4/4
Stamina: 18/18
Health regen: 1.5/day(-2.5)
Mana regen: 0.6/hour (-0.6)
Stamina regen: 1.5/hour (-1.5)
Race: Canine.
Damage Resistances:
Slash: 45, Blunt: 37, Piercing: 30, Cold: 86, Heat: 36, Fire: 27
Earth: 63, Mind: 36
Status: Weakened(Strong), Sick(Mild), Symbiosis, Healing(mild)
***
“It's most likely the cooking skill, interesting what other kinds of effects it can give?” I thought to myself as the pile of meat entered my view.
I slowly walked to it while I still had the bone in my mouth, “This is a problem, it will go bad sooner or later, I won’t be able to eat it all alone in time.” I thought to myself as I started to think of ways to preserve at least some of the meat.
“I need a refrigerator or should I try making pork jerky?” I was throwing around ideas but just didn’t really know what to do, in the end, I chose to split the meat in three piles.
One of the piles will be taken to one of the dead tunnels in the entrance where I will make a temporary cold room, as the hideout in a cave the temperature here is lower but in the tunnels, it is even chiller as there is no hot air coming from outside.
The second pile will be used to create jerkies. I still wasn’t sure how I was going to do this but it would be mostly trial and error until I succeed. The last pile will be the smallest one and will be left here with me as I need to see how long I can leave the meat outside in the hideout, without any preservations.
“Shame that I don’t have salt so that I would be able to easily preserve the meat.” I sighed at my misfortune but there was nothing I could do about it as I didn’t know where to find salt in a forest.
I went to the tunnels and chose the most desolate one for the cold room. I started to dig out a few holes in the walls as all of this was a temporary place of storage and shoved the meat into them.
“Yeah it's colder here, but at the same time, there is a lot of dirt. I will need to clean them again before cooking.” I tried to remove all the dirt and dust I could but it still looked as if the meat was sprayed with paprika.
Then I went back to the hideout and created a small “furnace” with rocks that were laying around. I didn’t really know what I was doing but the idea was quite simple.
“A thin stone plate that should be the base, under there should be a hole for the campfire and stones around it to insulate the furnace from outside.” I said to myself as I started to look for a good plate stone.
After finding one useful one I found a good spot near the campfire area and dug a hole there. It was more like a small tunnel, from one side the wood should go and from the other, the air will come in.
I placed the stone plate on the hole. It was around five centimeters thick and around fifty centimeters in diameter.
“It isn’t that big but I couldn’t find something better.” I said to myself as I started to create some stone igloo around it. It did collapse a few times but I didn’t stop until I finished it. I even made a small arch in the front with a bigger stone to block it so it really looked like an old-style oven.
“Not bad I said as I looked at my creation.” I smiled as I heard the sound of the almighty god.
*”Item Crafting” leveled up to Lv3*
“Nice soon I will be able to create even better things.” I threw all the wood that I had under the furnace and used the ambers that I had to light them up.
After that, I tried my best to cut the meat into thin pieces but with the crude knife I had it was barely possible.
“The chunks are a little bit too thick for jerkies, but it's better than nothing.” I started to throw some of the chunks of meat into the furnace before filling it fully with meat.
Then I went out of the hideout to collect some more wood for the furnace and the campfire in the future.
“Now I can even cook food in the furnace, but can it even be cooked properly there?” I asked myself but didn’t know the answer.
As I came back to the hideout I could smell the tasty smell of the slowly cooking meat, which made my mouth once more fill with saliva even though I ate not so long ago.
“It's fine I will eat later, ah crap the furnace is leaking.” I saw some oil spilling from the furnace's sides, that was a given as the stone “igloo” chamber that I made wasn’t perfect.
“Maybe if I find some clay later it would be better.” I thought to myself before dropping the branches that I collected into a pile on the side.
I continued to add some more fuel to the furnace but at the same time not making the fire too big, as I wanted to dry the meat and not burn it down into charcoal. This continued for the whole day, I was so bored that I even started to tidy up the area.
Placing some soft leaves and grass where I usually sleep, and adding stones to the campfire so it is more safe and looked like a normal campfire. I even cut down sticks and made a cooking rack for the campfire.
“Now I can just slowly turn the meat and it will cook perfectly.” I smiled as I thought to call it a day, I was very tired anyways as I didn’t sleep all night from the last day, so I went to sleep not so far away from the furnace so I will be able to add some more fuel to it once in a while.