Brand awoke to cold water being thrown in his face, soaking his clothes and bed.
“What the fuck!” he jumped out of bed wondering what just happened, searching the room his gaze finally landing on Rex.
“Rise and shine sunshine, we have a busy day ahead of us. Take these and put it on, you’re going to need it for where you’re going.” Rex shoved some leather clothes into his arms while leaving the room, slamming the door behind him.
“What an asshole” Brand cursed while shivering, he equipped the leather cloths he received trying to get warm.
Padded Leather shirt equipped.
Padded Leather leggings equipped.
Padded Leather helmet equipped
Leather Boots equipped
“I look a little goofy but they do add a little defense and they are quite comfortable.” He thought as he examined himself by checking the inventory screen.
Inventory Head Padded Leather Helmet
Neck
None Chest Padded Leather Shirt Legs Padded Leather Leggings Feet Leather Boots Left Hand None Right Hand Wooden Sword Rings None Bread 5 Close
He also checked how much the leather increased his stats.
Status Name Brand King Level
1
Attack 10-12 Defense 13 Strength 15 Vitality 12 Dexterity 7 Intelligence 13 Close
“Better than nothing.” He rubbed his arms still cold from the water while also being a little sore from the training the day before, he left the room into the main hall wide awake for the new day.
In the Hall he found Rex waiting for him along with another person, they were seated at the place Rex was yesterday. “Brand this is Fastin, Fastin this is Brand the newcomer I’ve been tasked with training.” Brand reached out and shook hands with Fastin while sitting down next to the duo. “Nice to see another fresh face around here, we haven’t been getting many new ones lately,” Fastin said while eating his breakfast.
“Fastin is a friend and one of the factions best fur collectors, he will be taking you out to show you the best hunting spots and to give you a little bit of combat experience,” Rex said while sipping on a mug of alcohol.
“Better eat something we will be out all day,” Fastin said finished the last of his food.
Brand ordered his free meal from the bartender while asking Rex “So today I’m going to follow him around? Are you coming with us?”
“No, I have other things to take care of, I trust Fastin to take care you” Rex replied while still sipping on his mug.
“Great, no wonder Don seemed a little angry. This guy is a lazy asshole.” Brand concentrated on eating his food while listening to the backing chatter of the Hall. There were quite a few people awake eating even though it was still dark outside. Most of the people in the faction were guys with a few women, the age of everybody seems relatively young as well maybe one person looked over the age of 50, the rest seem only a little older than Brand. Brand finished his breakfast and thanked the bartender when he came by to pick up the dishes, Fastin got up and headed toward the door seeing that Brand was finished.
Outside, the sky was filled with stars, a large moon dominated above the horizon. A slight brightening of the horizon could be seen indicating dawn was soon to arrive as Brand and Fastin hurried through town, “We are headed to the forest first” Fastin said while starting off towards the other edge of town.” Following along closely they made their way down the empty streets. At the edge of town, they increased their pace heading into the fields at the edge of town. The fields looked to be filled with wheat and potatoes. “Hey Fastin what do we use our fields for?”
“3 of our fields are made up of wheat, 1 is made up of potatoes, and the last is made up of grapes. We are lucky to have a climate that supports these things, it has relieved a lot of burden of food on our people”
The rest of the trip was made is silence except when Brand saw something that peaked is interest. They traveled an hour and a half before reaching the edge of the forest, taking a break before they entered. “OK Brand, You need to be careful from now on there are some higher level creatures in the forest include monsters like goblins and spiders, we shouldn’t have to worry about those since they are deeper inside the inner forest. We will be skimming the outskirts where I have some traps set up. After we check the traps I’ll show you a training spot to gain some experience, but from now on it’s important you make a little noise as possible and watch what I do if you are smart enough you can gain a new skill”. They slowly sneaked into the forest.
The first trap they came to was occupied by a small rabbit, it was already dead. Fastin quickly cuts it out of the trap while resetting it, after resetting the trap he quickly and efficiently skin the rabbit, everything disappeared into his inventory only leaving a few blood spots scattered on the ground. Having finished with this trap he motioned Brand to follow him as they continued to the next trap. Slowly they went from trap to trap until they were finished and came back out of the forest near where they went in, they checked 14 traps in total all of which 2 didn’t have anything caught in them. When Brand was watching Fastin at the 10th trap a few of notifications appeared, Brand was happy.”
Basic Trapping has been learned.
Basic Skinning has been learned.
Basic Gutting has been learned.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Taking a break outside the forest Brand checked his skills.
Skills Name Level Progress Basic Swordplay 2 0/100 Basic Examination 1 .1/100 Basic Mapping 1 40/100 Basic Trapping 1 0/100 Basic Gutting 1 0/100 Basic Skinning 1 0/100 Close
Basic Trapping Allows the user to make basic traps. Success is based on the skill level of the user.
Basic Gutting Allows the user to collect parts of the animal. Quality of the parts is based on the skill of the user.
Basic Skinning Allows the user to skin animals. Success is based on the skill level of the user.
“Seems like these skills take practice to use be use properly, also seems like my mapping skill is going up automatically, neat.”
“Good job, did you learn any skills?” Fastin asked while leaning against a tree.
“Yeah, I learned 3 skills Trapping, Skinning, and Gutting all basic.”
“Wow, you learn 3?! What is your Intelligence rating?”
“13 I thought it was normal.”
“13 is pretty good the average level one only has a rating of 5, no wonder you learned 3 skills.”
Brand smiled impressed with himself.
“Don’t get cocky your only level 1 not many people around here make it to above level 10. Let’s get going, I’ll show you an easy spot to train with that sword of yours.” Fastin began walking the edge of the forest, between the forest and farmland.
They walked for another hour skimming the forest before turning onto an open patch of grassland. “Here we are, this field should be filled with mice roaming all over. They are very fast, but they should only take one hit from you. This is where you will be training until you reach level 2. Don’t worry about killing them all, they spawn very fast but, you will have to worry about the special ones that are born naturally they sometimes mutate. Well good luck, I’ll be back later to take you back to town.” Fastin started walking away.
“That’s it, just start killing the mice? What if something more dangerous appears?” Brand yelled out as Fastin retreated.
“Don’t worry about that, if something really does show up, run to the forest and climb a tree until I come back. Ha Ha Ha” Fastin laughed as he kept walking out of sight.
“Don’t worry, just run up a tree” Brand mocked under his breath while wielding the sword and entering the grass. He searched for 10 minutes before finding his first rat. It was sniffing about the dead grass when Brand happened upon it.
“Finally found one”
Creeping forward he readied his sword preparing to swing.
“Swish” he jumped forward striking down on the rat”
“Thump” the sound of the sword hitting dirt resounded.
Miss
The rat with quick reflexes noticed the sword coming down on it and jumped into the grass screeching away.
“Little sucker is fast” Brand raised his sword and gave chase.
He didn’t find it again, he searched for 5 minutes but it was obvious that the rat had disappeared. Realizing that it was going to be harder then he thought Brand quietly went deeper into the grass in search of more rats. A while later he finally heard the faint sounds of dry grass being shuffled, slowly he approached the noise. Moving apart some tall grass he saw the rat. It was slightly bigger then the previous one, concentrating he readied his sword. Brand struck out at the rat landing a blow squarely on its head.
-10
The rat instantly stopped moving and lay there motionless. Excited Brand rushed over to the rat and examined it.
Name Rat Level 1 Health 0/10 Description A weak but fast-moving rodent.
As he examined the rat, small glowing orbs of light floated out of its body. The orbs floated gently into the air before being absorbed by Brand hand, as the orbs made contact with his hand Brand felt a warm sensation tingle up his hand slowly consuming his whole body. “This feels good, how much did I get?” he opened his status window.
Status Name Brand King Level
1
Experience
.5/100
Attack 10-12 Defense 13 Strength 15 Vitality 12 Dexterity 7 Intelligence 13 Close
“Only half a point, so if I kill 200 rats I should reach level 2.” Brand wanted to try his new skills skinning and gutting on the rat, but he realized that he didn't have a knife, so he decided to leave the dead rat their and continue on in search of more experience. Brand continued hunting rats until he noticed the sun was starting to get low in the sky, deciding to call it quits he returned to the place Fastin left him. He has only killed 10 rats altogether, a lot had got away. He was slowly getting the hang of it, increasing his chances of a successful hit. As he got closer to the meeting spot he saw Fastin waiting for him, he quickly jogged to meet up.
“How did you do?”
“I only killed 10.”
“Not bad, those rats are smart.”
“Yeah and fast too, I wanted to try skinning them but I don’t have a knife you think I could borrow one from you?”
“Sure I have a spare but I want a few skins if you are successful as repayment.”
“No problem, I appreciate your help”
They talked as they head back to town.
“Before I forget one thing that you need to know is that when you kill monsters and gain knowledge of them you will unlock the monsterology tab in your menu. monsterology allows for you to know the the ins and out of monsters allow for bonuses when attacking certain monsters. For example if you kill enough rats you will unlock a page about rats in the book of monsterology making it easier to kill them by knowing their patterns and weak points.”
“Interesting, that sounds really helpful.”
“Yeah it is especially when you are fighting groups of monsters or even a boss monster, it can save your life.”
“Well…Well…well look what we have here some people are trespassing on our land.” A voice interrupted their conversation as they were walking through a feild of corn. Three men appeared from the sides in front of them from behind the corn.
“We are just passing through Scott, you know this is the fastest way to town,” Fastin told the man directly in front of them, he motioned Brand to get closer to him.
“You know this is the land of the Fire Wolf Faction, Fastin you shouldn’t be here.” Scott replied.
Brand tightened his grip on his sword while staying close to Fastin, watching their group slowly get closer. They were dressed in leather armor, 2 were weilding swords while Scott their leader presumably had a giant axe.
“5 Silvers and we will let you go.” Scott said while leaning against his axe.
“What do we do?” Brand whispered to Fastin while eyeing the trio.
Fastin ingnored Brand while he stared at Scott. “This is bullshit, you are only targeting us becuase of our faction.” Fastin replied
“That may be so but that doesn’t matter, you are on our land now pay up or else.” Scott said while brandishing his axe.
5 silver appeared in the hand of Fastin which he held out to Scott. “Here, now let us go, we are in a hurry.” Taking the silver Scott motioned the other two men to move aside. “You can go just remember not to tresspass on our land, if we catch you here again it won’t just be 5 silver.” Scott threatened motioning them to move along. Brand and Fastin both quickly passed through the opening the men made, being watched the whole time. Once past the blockade they increased their speed back to town worried they might be hassled again.